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REPORT 

OF THE 

HARVARD CLASS OF 1853 




l-eAyU 'PX/U.Cu '^,-t^-u.cxU^ 



Uy^A iLr^ 



REPORT 



OF THE 



Harvard Class of 1853 

1849-1013 

ISSUED ON 

THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY 

FOR THE USE OF THE CLASS 
AND ITS FRIENDS 

Commencement, 1013 



CAMBRIDGE 
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 






y 



Gift. 

JUL - »»'« 



<rN. 



PREFACE 

MOST of the following class biographies were read 
at class-meetings as obituaries, without view to 
publication. Class reports in the usual sense have never 
been made, having come into general use since our 
graduation, and this Book is intended in some sort to 
supply the omission. It is the result of the urgent re- 
quest of surviving members and the kind assistance of 
Classmate Rantoul, who has undertaken the Editorship. 

Samuel S. Shaw, 

Secretary. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

BY THE EDITOR 

A T the Annual Dinner of the Class of '53, which brought 
■^^ together on January 11, 1913, at the Union Club of 
Boston, eight of its fourteen surviving members, the feeling 
was universal that no more fitting time than this sixtieth an- 
niversary would present itself for the printing of the sketches 
of members of the class prepared by our Class Secretary of 
the last fifty years. The members present were: Andrews, 
Eliot, Lyman, Rantoul, Russell, Sargent, Shaw, White. 

Accordingly, Rantoul was asked, with the cooperation of 
Secretary Shaw, who had declined the function, to procure 
the issuing of an edition of these life-stories, which should 
be in the hands of surviving members of the class, the repre- 
sentatives of deceased members, and the Secretaries of other 
classes, at the coming Commencement. 

The class left college with a membership of eighty-eight — 
the largest class ever graduated at that date. Eleven others 
besides these members joined the class, from time to time, 
who failed to complete the course. Sargent dropped out at 
the opening of the Junior year, but was reinstated later on 
petition of the class, and Winsor, who left in the Senior year, 
got his degree in 1868. John Godfrey Neil entered as a 
Sophomore, and left in the middle of the Senior year. Gardi- 
ner Green Hammond retained his place in the class through 
the Freshman year, and rejoined it for part of the Junior 
year. George William Billings and Samuel Carey remained 
through the Freshman and Sophomore years. William Ed- 
ward Dorsheimer, Henry Augustus Edwards, and Adolphe 
Rost did not remain beyond the Freshman year, while Edward 
Henry Chace and Nathan James Clifford remained only 
through the first Freshman term. Dorsheimer received an 
honorary A.M. in 1859. 

vii 



Preface 

Besides such concurrent action as was called for in prepa- 
ration for Class Day, which proved to be sadly inharmonious, 
the class has acted together on very few occasions. The first 
was that of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Battle of 
Bunker Hill. There was a public celebration at Charlestown, 
and ex-President Everett pronounced an oration in the ship- 
house at the Navy Yard, from which the frigate " Vermont " 
had just been launched. The class was present, marching 
from Cambridge. Another occasion was the opening of the 
Grand Trunk Railway, which occurred in the presence of 
Lord Elgin, the Governor General of Canada, of President 
Fillmore, and of other personages of the first distinction. 
On our march back to Cambridge after the observances, we 
were entertained at the Mt. Vernon Street home of Adam 
Wallace Thaxter (H. U. '52) and we paid our respects to 
Mr. Winthrop at his home in Pemberton Square, who did 
not ask us in, but " regretted that his house was not as large 
as his heart." On Class Day Adams Sherman Hill was 
Orator, chosen by one vote after thirty-three ballots at two 
prolonged class meetings. Cutler was Poet, chosen by ac- 
clamation, Carroll, Odist, and Albert Gallatin Browne graced 
the Class Supper with an Ode of very exceptional quality. 
Eliot drilled us for singing the Class Ode proper. The first 
Class Secretary was Washburn, and he resigned in 1863, to 
be succeeded by Shaw. 

The contribution of the class to the active military service 
of the country would include Briggs, the surgeon of Colonel 
Shaw's 54th Regiment; Brown, a valued officer in Colonel 
Lowell's 2d Massachusetts Cavalry, recommended for the 
regular army; Dorsheimer, a Major on Fremont's Stafif in 
Missouri ; Dwight, who fell at Antietam ; Hartwell, engaged 
in an Ohio Battery in driving Kirby Smith out of Kentucky; 
Hurd, sorely wounded in " The Wilderness," and under fire 
from Antietam to Appomattox; Livermore, who rose from 
Lieutenant to Major in the Heavy Artillery; Nourse, Ad- 
jutant and Captain in the 55th Illinois Infantry, who marched 
with Sherman from Atlanta to the Sea, — a modern Anabasis 
whose Xenophon has not yet appeared; Paine, a Major 

viii 



Preface 

General by Brevet at the close of the war; Palfrey, 
graduated at the head of his West Point class, to become one 
of the most valued engineers in the service; Pomeroy, a Cap- 
tain in the Regular Army, for a time commanding at Fort Inde- 
pendence in Boston Harbor; Vaughan, of the Topographical 
Engineers, detailed for duty at the War Department ; Whitte- 
more, the first officer, as Major, to get marching orders, and 
the first Harvard man to go, mustered out, after long service, 
as Lieutenant Colonel; Wilson, Adjutant General and Chief 
of Staff to Generals Thomas Ewing and Harvey. 

In the group surrounding the Governor in front of the 
State House, when the colors of the returning troops were 
surrendered to the Commonwealth, iDecember 22, 1865, there 
were present of the Class of '53, then but twelve years out of 
college, Paine, a Brevet Major General of Volunteers, com- 
manding, that day, one third of the Massachusetts quota; 
Browne, Special Military Secretary to the Governor; Adams 
of the Governor's Staff, and Rantoul, a guest of the Governor. 

Few classes, if any, have shared more largely in the service 
of the University. Adams was a member of the Corporation 
from 1874 to 1897. It may not be amiss to add here that his 
son has been its Treasurer since 1898. Ammidown was a 
University Lecturer in 1888-89. Cutler was Assistant Pro- 
fessor and Professor of Modern Languages from 1865 to 
1870. Eliot was a tutor from 1854 to 1858; Assistant 
Professor of Mathematics from 1858 to 1861 ; Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry from 1858 to 1863; Overseer in 1868-69; 
President for forty years, from 1869 to 1909, and President 
Emeritus since 1909, receiving the degree of LL.D. from 
Harvard in that year — a life service, all but six years, 
devoted to the University. Gage was a University Lecturer 
in 1863-64. Hill was Assistant Professor of Rhetoric from 
1872 to 1876; Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory 
for twenty-eight years, from 1876 to 1904; and after that 
Boylston Professor Emeritus with the Harvard degree of 
LL.D. Lyman was an Overseer from 1892 to 1899. Edward 
Pearce was a tutor from 1858 to 1861. James Mills Peirce 
was a tutor from 1854 to 1858 and from i860 to 1861 ; As- 



Preface 

sistant Professor of Mathematics from 1861 to 1885; Per- 
kins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics from 1885 to 
1906; Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 
from 1890 to 1895; and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences from 1895 to 1898 — another life, with the exception 
of two years, spent in the service of Harvard. Peterson was 
Assistant Professor of Philosophy from 1870 to 1872. White 
was, in 1858, Instructor in Chemistry; Lecturer on Parasites 
in the Medical School, and University Lecturer at the Medical 
School on Skin Diseases in 1863-64; Adjunct Professor of 
Chemistry from 1866 to 1871 ; Instructor in Medical Chem- 
istry in 1871-72; Professor of Dermatology for a period of 
thirty-one years from 1871 to 1902, and, since that, Profes- 
sor Emeritus of Dermatology — a service spread over forty- 
odd years of which Harvard absorbed all that was not claimed 
by an exacting professional practice. Winsor was Librarian 
of the University from 1877 to 1897. 

The first ten of the class in rank were these, and they stood 
in the following order : Carroll, Eliot, Erving, Edward Pearce, 
Hosmer, Lyman, Dwight, Waterhouse, James M. Peirce, 
Charles E. Johnson. 

It would seem pertinent to indicate approximately the pur- 
suits in life which have most claimed the efforts of the class. 
This is not altogether easy. Almost all have had an occupa- 
tion which can be fairly well defined, but so many have en- 
gaged in several occupations, either following more than one 
at once, or more than one at different times, that the estimate 
involves deciding which of a number of pursuits is to be 
reckoned the chief one — a delicate duty — or else it in- 
volves the necessity of enumerating one person in several 
callings, which would swell the total beyond the numbers of 
the class. A rough enumeration would show results not 
widely at variance with the figures given below — without 
attempting to define terms too nicely, for in this it would be 
possible to differ much. We must not forget the familiar 
fact that the man who plants himself as a lawyer in the newer 
sections of the West is almost certain to become interested 
in banking, real estate operations, or insurance as well, nor 



Preface 

the equally familiar fact that, in the older sections of the 
country, success is not denied to the shipowner who ventures 
into railroads, nor to the stock-broker who deals in real 
estate. 

Perhaps it would be safe to say that the Class of '53 has 
paid tribute to the professions about in the proportion of 
twenty-five to the law, sixteen to education, eleven to medi- 
cine, nine to the pulpit, leaving twenty-five for commercial 
and manufacturing pursuits generally, and a residuum of un- 
placed members made up of farmers, bankers, writers, archi- 
tects, and engineers, none of them numerous, and together 
aggregating a dozen. The ratio given would be nearly cor- 
rect, though it might not be easy in some cases to designate 
just the units that go to make up the total. 

Our class festivities have served us well. We began early, 
even before graduation, with having a class dinner now and 
then — at Porter's, at Parker's, at the Revere House — but 
there was no regularity nor system about it. These sporadic 
gatherings pleased the deipnophagous, but they were only to 
be got together after correspondence and appeal. As years 
multiplied, and as casual meetings grew less frequent, and as 
each classmate came to have more to say for himself, the 
idea of a reunion at stated intervals became more and more 
attractive, and, by allowing an interval of a year or more to 
elapse between the dinners, we succeeded in impressing distant 
members with the worthiness of the call, while those nearer 
home could not always be persuaded to attend. We found 
ourselves able to rely on the attendance of classmates from 
remote points in the country, when the meetings were not 
too frequent. Nobody was ever more constant than King 
from New York. 

Gradually we settled down in the habit of an annual din- 
ner, called at a comfortably early hour, and of late years 
regularly at the Union Club. The class was fortunate in 
its Secretary, who has interested himself in the somewhat 
onerous details involved, and has been able to give to his 
formal summons the relish of a personal invitation. From 
twenty to thirty members have been a common number pres- 

xi 



Preface 

ent in late years. Besides these gatherings, brilliant dinners 
have been given in two or three instances by members of the 
class — one by Crocker, January 20, 1900, at his Boston 
residence, and one by Clark at the Union Club, follov^ing, 
after fourteen years, his outing at Point Shirley in 1889. 
Clark's Union Club dinner fitly introduced the half-century 
observances, to be followed the next day by a luncheon in 
University Hall and by a delightful tea at Peirce's house in 
Cambridge. Other casual meetings at college rooms linger 
in the mind. Weld gave a memorable home-dinner at West 
Roxbury before his marriage in 1859, and Rantoul asked the 
class to breakfast at Beverly Farms on his seventieth birth- 
day in 1902, when nineteen of the twenty-eight living mem- 
bers met. 

Classmates who recall the writer's college days will marvel 
at the self-effacement he has practised in excluding almost 
every semblance of a jest from this compilation. Of course 
the class had its jokes, and some of them served the purpose 
of the time so well that they seem to have deserved a better 
fate than to perish with us. But each class has a humor of 
its own. And while we cannot be expected to forget the 
mock-part — "a Valley-Dictory Dialogue between the two 
Hills " ; or the " Law in Dumper's Case," which Dwight 
thought would apply to the coal-heaver, when he came home 
to find a load of coal sprawled over his sidewalk; or the dish 
that was passed at the Misses Upham's table for collecting 
pigeon-bones, " pro bono publico " ; or the headache after 
drinking hock, post hoc, propter hoc; or the codfish hung up 
in the State House to save codifying the laws; or the waiter 
who was to pass the celery celerrime; or Columbus, on 
landing, speaking of the natives as " Indiginae," anglicized 
Indigins, and readily corrupted into Ingins; or the umbrella 
so full of holes that it was absolutely down-pourous ; or the 
traveller who made a stop at Dover, in order to try, in their 
native habitat, the warm'd-over puddings his wife had been 
serving up to him for so many years; or Spurius Dentatus 
introducing false teeth into Rome; or the Governor Briggs 
story; or a score of others — while we may cling fondly to 

xii 



Preface 

these stanch old friends, we cannot promise them a kindlier 
future than the oblivion that engulfs the rest. 

When asked to see these sketches through the Press, I 
approached the proposal with some misgiving, feeling that 
duty to the past made it one not lightly to be ignored, but 
that it involved an amount of labor and confinement which 
could not fail to make it irksome in the end. Such apprehen- 
sions have disappeared. The work of the Class Secretary has 
been such as to reduce the task assigned me to its lowest 
terms. And of the series of sketches it has fallen to my lot 
to lay before those upon whose regard the members of my 
class have claims, almost no sketch has failed to revive a 
memory which deserved to live. In most cases it has been 
to me a delightful renewal of an intimacy long suspended, 
and in some it was a new study of character almost amount- 
ing to a revelation. Either the classmate had greatly matured 
after graduating, or I must have unconsciously allowed some 
personal singularity or some infelicity of manner to stand in 
the way of a full appreciation of the man. And many of 
these revived associations appealed to the strongest ties that 
have given value to my life. 

R. S. R. 

Salem, Massachusetts, June, 1913. 



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Harvard 1852 



RECORDS OF THE CLASS 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 

Eldest son of Charles Francis Adams (H. U. 1825) 
and Abigail (Brooks) Adams, was born at Boston on the 
22d of September, 1833, ^ descendant from two conspicuous 
New England families, having for paternal grandfather and 
great-grandfather Presidents of the United States, and for 
maternal grandfather Peter Chardon Brooks, the wealthiest 
Boston merchant of his day. Arrived at college, when he 
rose in Harvard Hall, for the regular exercise in declamation, 
he found himself placed — and White's diary notes the fact 
— between a portrait of his great-grandfather, John Adams, 
on the one side, and a portrait of his grandfather, John 
Quincy Adams, on the other. 

After receiving instruction in the private school of Francis 
Phelps, in Phillips Place, opposite King's Chapel, since built 
over, he entered the Boston Latin School, then in Bedford 
Street, in 1844, where he pursued the regular five-year course 
under Messrs. Dixwell, master, and Gardner, sub-master, and 
entered college as Freshman in 1849. Taking his degree in 
July, 1853, he lost no time in applying himself to professional 
studies, and, on the ist of August following, was entered as 
student in the office of Messrs. John J. Clark and Elias Mer- 
win, in the old Brazier's Building, 27 State Street. The firm 
was dissolved in the following April, when Lemuel Shaw, Jr., 
succeeded Mr. Merwin as partner. His whole legal education 

15 



Harvard Class of 1853 



was obtained while a student in that office, and he never availed 
himself of the advantage of a law school — an unusual course 
for a young man to whom all opportunities were open, but 
which there is no reason to suppose he ever regretted. Ad- 
mitted to the Bar in 1856, he immediately began practice with 
success in Suffolk and Norfolk Counties. It is doubtful, how- 
ever, whether purely professional distinction ever had much 
attraction for him; active citizenship was rather his ideal, 
combined with the pursuits of a landed proprietor. He very 
early took charge of the family estate at Mt. Wollaston, 
Quincy, the improvement and cultivation of which became 
one of his main objects in life. It contained within its limits 
the famous " Merrymount," celebrated in Massachusetts his- 
tory for the disorders and revelries of Thomas Morton, and 
had been acquired by President John Quincy Adams, partly 
by descent from his maternal ancestors, the Quincys, who 
traced their ownership back to a grant made in 1635 to Ed- 
mund Quincy — the first in New England of the name — 
and partly by purchase. 

On the 29th of April, 1861, Mr. Adams married Fanny C, 
daughter of the then late George C. Crowninshield, of the 
Salem and Boston family of that name, son of Benjamin W. 
Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy under Madison and 
Monroe, and member of Congress from 1823 to 183 1. Mrs. 
Adams's mother was Harriet, daughter of David Sears, of 
Boston. 

Having established himself on what has been described as 
one of the finest model farms in Massachusetts, containing 
nearly five hundred acres, Mr. Adams commenced the career 
of a public-spirited townsman of Quincy. He served on the 
School Committee, as Trial Justice, and again, several years 
later, in 1873, as chairman of the School Committee; and, 
in the last-mentioned capacity, was largely instrumental in 
an important reformation widely discussed as " The Quincy 
System." For nearly a score of years he acted by common 
consent as moderator at all town meetings, and during these 
years, through his efficient conduct of proceedings, fthe meet- 
ings in question became models of their kind, the affairs of 

16 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the town were reduced to order, and the town was placed on 
the best financial footing. 

In recording his son's marriage in his diary, the Hon. 
Charles Francis Adams wrote : " The times are not auspicious 
for similar undertakings." The War of the Rebellion was just 
breaking out. All Mr. Adams's prepossessions were in favor 
of the cause of the North. His grandfather had combated 
Southern ideas in Congress with vigorous pertinacity, and 
his father had been candidate for Vice-President in the Free 
Soil movement of 1848. During the four years 1862 to 1865 
inclusive, Mr. Adams was on the military staff of Governor 
Andrew, and in 1865 was elected as a Republican to the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives, a delegate from 
the Sixth Norfolk District, then, and during his subsequent 
terms of service, coterminous with the town of Quincy. The 
events of the year 1866 gave a new direction to Mr. Adams's 
political views, and threw him into new political associations. 
In February of that year the question of the reconstruction 
of the Confederate States was dividing the Republican party, 
and, with quite clearly defined constitutional views, he sided 
strongly with Secretary Seward in support of the policy which 
President Lincoln was believed to have favored. Undeterred 
by President Johnson's indiscreet leadership, he supported him 
on principle, then and there breaking with the Republican 
Party. In the election of the following autumn he was de- 
feated as a Representative from Quincy upon the issue of 
so-called " Carpet Bag Reconstruction." In 1867 he became 
Democratic candidate for Governor. Failing election as Gov- 
ernor, he again represented Quincy in the Legislature of 1868. 
He now became more prominent in national politics, and his 
views attracted wide attention. 

He was invited by the State Democratic Committee of 
South Carolina and by General Wade Hampton, to come to 
the South in order that he might learn the attitude of the 
Southern people and make a report of his experiences upon 
his return to Massachusetts. In acknowledging the invita- 
tion, he stated bluntly that if he should go South he should 
say some very unwelcome things. He told them frankly 

17 



Harvard Class of 1853 



that the attitude of the North was largely inspired by dis- 
trust, which was based in part upon the unwise legislation 
of the Southern States, and by what were known as the 
" Black Codes " and " Vagrant Laws," but the committee 
prevailed upon him to go, and his visit gave him the oppor- 
tunity to deliver two speeches, one in Columbia on October 
10, and the other in Charleston four days later. With 
characteristic boldness he introduced himself as a *' grandson 
of one of the earliest opponents of your peculiar institution," 
and as an " ardent supporter of Mr. Lincoln in favor of the 
vigorous prosecution of the War," and as " one who hailed 
with gratitude the abolition of slavery." He then proceeded 
to sketch the political events which had led up to the existing 
state of affairs and which, as he believed, involved the in- 
fraction of Constitutional principles, first by the South and 
then by the North. He urged his hearers to accept cheerfully 
the results of the War, and to cultivate friendly relations with 
the negroes. 

In the Presidential election of 1868 he supported Seymour 
against Grant. He continued to be nominated as Democratic 
candidate for Governor of Massachusetts for the years 1869 
to 1 87 1 inclusive, and, in the meantime, sat for Quincy in 
the Legislature of 1871, and afterwards in that of 1874. 
Before this, his last political office, events had brought his 
name into national prominence by his acceptance of the nomi- 
nation as Vice-President of the United States in connection 
with that of Charles O'Conor as President, made at a con- 
vention of so-called " straight-out Democrats " on Septem- 
ber 2, 1872. This was in opposition to the work of the regu- 
lar party convention that adopted the nomination of Horace 
Greeley, made originally by the Liberal Republicans, the party 
of Carl Schurz and B. Gratz Brown. Besides this distinc- 
tion, Messrs. O'Conor and Adams were selected as substitute 
nominees of the Labor Reform Convention, in place of Judge 
David Davis of the Supreme Court and Joel Parker, an ex- 
Governor of New Jersey, who declined. The general party 
dislocation of 1872 did not apparently affect Mr. Adams's 
standing amongst Democrats of his own State, for in the 

18 



Harvard Class of 1853 



following year he received the regular party nomination for 
Lieutenant-Governor, made jointly with that of William Gas- 
ton for Governor, but they failed of election. 

In April, 1876, he suffered a very severe blow in the death 
of two children, victims of diphtheria, who died and were 
buried on successive days — a blow from which he never 
fully recovered. 

The election of Mr. Adams as Fellow of Harvard College 
in 1877 was something in regard to which he said he was 
at a loss to know how it came about, adding modestly that 
he did what little he could to justify the unmerited honor. 
Of his services President Eliot writes as follows: "As a 
member of the Corporation, John Quincy Adams was a strong 
reliance. He entered into the work of the Board with keen 
interest, was punctual at the numerous meetings, and always 
ready to state his views with clearness and decision. Entirely 
practical, he was of great assistance to the Treasurer, for he 
was at the time the best qualified member of the Finance 
Committee and the most accessible. Moreover, he was ready 
to take responsibility, and to approve or disapprove with de- 
cision financial proposals. His judgment in such matters was 
excellent, and when he had made up his mind — of course 
in consultation with the Treasurer — he was immovable. In 
dealing with tenants or buyers or sellers, the Treasurer could 
always say, * It is useless for me to entertain your proposi- 
tion; I am sure Mr. Adams would not consent to it.' He 
was generally conservative as regards investments and Uni- 
versity policies, but, on just occasion, bold, and then un- 
affected by opposition or doubt. He never refused any work 
for the University, but, on the contrary, was always ready 
and zealous. After the lamentable death of two of his chil- 
dren by diphtheria, Mr. Adams resigned several of his posi- 
tions of trust, and seemed to mean to withdraw himself from 
society and from business engagements. Accordingly, when 
the Corporation had decided that they wanted him as a 
member, and I went to some of his friends to ask them what 
they thought of the choice, and how he would take the pro- 
posal, all but one of them discouraged me with the statement 

19 



Harvard Class of 1853 



that he would certainly decline. Nevertheless, I went to his 
office, described the work of a member of the Corporation 
as accurately as I could, and asked him to take the proposal 
into consideration. When I had finished my somewhat long 
description, he immediately replied, * I do not want any time 
for consideration ; I '11 do it.' Do it he did, with thorough- 
ness, and apparently with enjoyment." He served seventeen 
years. 

The movement of 1879 to make Benjamin F. Butler Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts forced Mr. Adams into another seced- 
ing minority, and he was chosen candidate for the Governor- 
ship by a small faction known as the Faneuil Hall Democrats. 
He was now withdrawing from public life and occupying 
himself with business affairs almost exclusively. He received 
the nomination for Representative for the Second Congres- 
sional District, in 1884, but declined to serve. More than 
once he was talked of as a suitable member of the cabinet of 
President Cleveland, but without any encouragement on his 
part. At the beginning of 1889 he was State Director of 
the Fitchburg Railroad; Trustee of the Boston Real Estate 
Trust, and of the Sailors' Snug Harbor at Quincy ; President 
of the Quincy & Boston Street Railway; Director of the 
American Loan and Trust Company, of the Security Safe 
Deposit Company, of the West Michigan Lumber Company, 
and of a number of other Western companies of like 
character. 

Of his later years his brother, Charles Francis Adams, 
says : " It was almost impossible to induce him to go away 
from home for any length of time, or to any unaccustomed 
place. Between the time of his marriage and 1880, his sum- 
mers were passed in Quincy, chiefly on his place at Mt. Wol- 
laston, where he built a house in 1872. His winters between 
1 86 1 and 1866 were passed in Boston. Subsequent to 1866 
he lived at Quincy all the year round until about the year 
1880, after which he again had a house in Boston (177 
Commonwealth Avenue) where he passed his winters. In 
1880 he became a member of the Glades Club at North 
Scituate, and during the remaining years of his life some ten 

20 



Harvard Class of 1853 



or twelve weeks in the summer were regularly passed with 
his family there. He was fond of the water, and, at one 
period, sailed much. I think on the whole he derived more 
enjoyment from his connection with * the Glades,' a club of 
eight families, during the last fourteen years of his life 
than from any other single source. It afforded him a 
variety in life, before lacking. My brother's single trip to 
Europe, visiting Italy, Paris, and London, covered about 
three months, from the middle of January to the middle of 
April, 1894." 

Mr. Adams returned from Europe suffering from an at- 
tack of malaria, and his health continued poor during the 
summer. In the month of August he sustained a slight attack 
of apoplexy from which he rallied. A second attack proved 
fatal, and he died at half-past five on the morning of August 
14, 1894. At his decease, Mr. Adams's family consisted of 
his widow — three sons, George Caspar, since deceased, of 
the Class of 1886; Charles Francis, of the Class of 1888, 
Treasurer of Harvard College; Arthur, of the Class of 1899, 
and one daughter, Abigail. Of the children deceased, the 
son John Quincy died on April 12, 1876, in his fifteenth year; 
the daughter Fanny on April nth of the same year at the 
age of two years and eight months. 

In youth Mr. Adams was singularly handsome; a ruddy 
complexion, a thick head of auburn hair which yielded early 
to the hereditary decorous baldness of the family, and a well- 
built figure gave an impression of great health and vigor. 

EDWARD HOLMES AMMIDOWN, 

Son of Holmes and Seraph (Hodges) Ammidown, was 
born in the town of Southbridge, Massachusetts, on October 
28, 1830. The family removed to Boston in the autumn of 
1836. He entered the English High School in 1844, and 
remained throughout the regular course of three years. 
The year from the summer of 1847 to that of 1848 he passed 
at Andover, Massachusetts, studying modern languages. In 
September, 1848, he determined to go to college, and entered 
at Harvard, July, 1849, ^s Freshman, with the Class of 1853. 

21 



Harvard Class of 1853 



His rank was high. With Peirce he was awarded the 1852 
Bowdoin Prize for dissertations. 

On graduating Ammidown at once considered and de- 
clined the rather flattering offer of a position on the edi- 
torial staff of the " Boston Daily Advertiser," and began an 
eventful business career as clerk, without salary, in the whole- 
sale dry-goods house of Sweetser, Gookin & Company, of 
Boston. Promotion came in the form of a situation with 
Read, Chadwick & Company, dry-goods commission mer- 
chants, at a salary of five hundred dollars, the service in- 
cluding the supervision of a calico-printing establishment at 
Compton, Rhode Island, and a semi-weekly visit to that place 
during the spring and summer of 1854. At this time his 
father had entered the dry-goods commission business and 
desired Ammidown to join him. The connection continued 
until i860, during which time Ammidown was engaged in 
business, travelling in various parts of the Union. A tour 
in 1856 led him through Southern and Western States, and 
he visited Nashville, Louisville, Chicago, where the process* 
of raising the level of the city was going on, and St. Louis, 

At this time he was active in founding the short-lived Har- 
vard Club, which had rooms in Tremont Street, and had 
among its members Robert C. Winthrop, Charles F. Adams, 
and George S. Hillard. The commercial crisis and panic of 
1857 left little hope of any immediate success to be made in 
the dry-goods trade, and Ammidown availed himself of the 
period of recovery to visit Europe. He sailed on December 
16 for Liverpool, and hastened through England to Paris, 
where he employed ten weeks in the study of French in a 
French family, and in sight-seeing. Proceeding by sea from 
Marseilles to Naples, after seeing all that was interesting 
in that vicinity, Ammidown turned northward and travelled 
with American friends by Vettura as far as Florence, taking 
in Rome by the way; through Venice, Trieste, Vienna, 
Prague, reaching Dresden, where he found lodging in the 
family of the Hofrath, Director Dittmarsch, a government 
official in charge of all the theatres in the city, by whom he 
was introduced to the most eminent actors and actresses of 

22 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Germany, meeting them at dinners and picnics. Among them 
were members of the Schroeder family, Emil Derdrient and 
Johanna Wagner. 

While at Dresden, most opportunely, Ammidown received 
an invitation from the distinguished naturalist. Dr. Augustus 
A. Gould, to make a trip with him through Switzerland. This 
resulted most satisfactorily, the doctor being cordially re- 
ceived by scientific men wherever they went. After spend- 
ing some time travelling in England and Scotland, Ammidown 
arrived at Boston in September, 1858, and found the panic 
of 1857 apparently forgotten and active business going on, 
and he resumed his business of travelling. In the fall of 
i860 and in the midst of the excitement over the presidential 
election of that year he opened an office in New York. After 
the first financial trouble which was caused by the loss of 
Southern business and Southern debts, a period of great 
activity, stimulated by the inflation of the currency and the 
demands of the government as a customer and by a high 
• tariff, ensued. These years were profitable to Ammidown, 
and on June i, 1872, he married Mary Adelaide Ammidown, 
daughter of Luther S. and Mary L. (Russell) Ammidown, 
of Southbridge, and made a second tour in Europe. The 
great panic in 1873 changed the aspect of affairs, and it 
became necessary to struggle night and day with financial 
difficulties, but when 1874 came he was substantially free 
from debt and prepared to prosecute business with new en- 
ergy. The results, however, were not very satisfactory until 
1879, when a period of three years of extraordinary success 
ensued. 

Meantime, in 1864, he was made a Director of the Im- 
porters' and Traders' Bank of New York, one of the largest 
of that city, an office which he held for twenty-five years; a 
Director in the Gebhardt Fire Insurance, and in the United 
States Life Insurance Companies of New York; member of 
the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, on 
the Committee of Foreign Commerce and the Revenue Laws. 
As chairman of that committee he made several reports on 
national questions which were printed for distribution in 

23 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Congress and throughout the country; the most important 
of these related to President Arthur's proposed Spanish treaty 
and to the Chinese Exclusion Act. During all the time of 
his residence in New York Ammidown was engaged in vari- 
ous manufacturing enterprises, in woolen, cotton, silk, and 
jute fabrics ; was a member of the National Society of Wool 
Manufacturers, and often called on to testify before com- 
mittees of Congress in discussions on the tariff question. His 
first contribution to the press which attracted attention was 
an article in the " New York Tribune," in 1883, entitled 
" National Illiteracy." From this time forward he became 
permanently and publicly identified with the policy of pro- 
tection and its adoption as a Republican party measure. He 
organized the Woolen Goods Association and the American 
Protective Tariff League, which had branches in every State 
in the Union ; raised $200,000 to establish a Republican penny- 
paper, the " New York Press " ; established the " American 
Economist," devoted to the interests of the Tariff League, 
and wrote for several years its leading editorials. His re- 
port in 1884, as chairman of the Committee of Foreign Com- 
merce of the Chamber of Commerce, opposing the ratifica- 
tion of the Spanish treaty, secured the approval of a large 
majority and prevented President Arthur from urging its 
confirmation. In December, 1889, his report in opposition 
to the proposed Chinese Exclusion Act is credited with hav- 
ing had the effect to delay its passage for two years. He 
was chosen a presidential elector in 1888. In 1890 he had 
an active part in formulating and securing the enactment of 
the McKinley Tariff. Ammidown publicly opposed Mr. 
Blaine's scheme for reciprocity as it was at first introduced, 
and led Mr. Blaine to modify it essentially. He was obliged 
to decline an appointment by President Harrison as one of 
nine National Commissioners to the Columbian Exposition. 

During the spring of 1890 Ammidown was encouraged to 
undertake a speculation in wool involving the investment of 
more than a million dollars, in which the results of forty years 
of business activity disappeared. This was based largely on 
the expectation of an increased duty on wool. But the in- 

24 



Harvard Class of 1853 



crease was delayed till September, giving importers ample 
time to fill the market, and all hope of being able to carry 
until the market should be boomed was frustrated by the 
paralyzing effect of the failure of Baring Brothers & Com- 
pany in October. The firm of Ammidown & Smith paid 
its debts, but Ammidown's individual notes went to protest, 
and he was obliged to make an assignment and left New 
York to try his fortunes elsewhere. While in Paris in May, 
1 89 1, his attention was attracted by a glowing description 
of the country about Puget Sound. A visit led to a perma- 
nent residence at Seattle and to an interest in various enter- 
prises and the Presidency of the Seattle Power Company, 
which subsequently sold its property to the city of Seattle. 

EDWARD REYNOLDS ANDREWS 

119 Beacon St., Boston, May 19, 1903. 
Samuel S. Shaw, Esq., Sec. Class of '53. 

My dear Shaw : In response to your frequent requests for 
memoranda of the events of my life for the Class Book, I will 
try to put down some which may possibly be of interest to the 
class. 

I was born, on December 22, 183 1, in Central Court, Boston, 
which is now covered by a part of Jordan, Marsh Company's 
store. My parents were Wm. Turell and Fannie Mackay 
(nee Reynolds) Andrews. My father graduated at Harvard 
in the Class of 1812, and was Treasurer of the College from 
1853 to 1857. 

I began my education, when I was two years old, at a small 
infant school in Central Court; went next to a school kept 
by Miss Whitney under the First Church in Chauncy Place, 
and later to the preparatory department of the Chauncy Hall 
School, and after that to public schools in East Street and 
Mason Street, entering the Boston Latin School in 1844 and 
Harvard College in 1849. 

During my Freshman year I roomed and boarded, at 
five dollars per week, on Brattle Street, in the house next 
above the famous blacksmith-shop, where " the Village Smithy 
stands." But Longfellow in this case took a poet's license, as 

25 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the blacksmith died first and my landlady was the widow of the 
blacksmith. Hurd had rooms in the same house. I took my 
meals during the rest of my college course at Mrs. Willard's 
on Mt. Auburn Street, with several classmates and others, 
price three dollars per week, and roomed with Briggs in 
Stoughton, Hollis, and Holworthy. I was absent from college 
during most of the second term of my Senior year, having a 
serious trouble with my eyes, but graduated with the class 
without any final examination : this shows how much easier it 
was to get a degree at Harvard then than now. 

In October, 1853, I went abroad and was absent until 
'August, 1855. I spent the first winter in a French family in 
Passy near Paris, a suburb where Dr. Franklin once lived. 
In the spring of 1854 I went to England and, besides spend- 
ing much time in London, made quite an extensive tour 
through England and Scotland, visiting the chief cathedral 
cities and most picturesque and rural counties of that beauti- 
ful country. Public stage-coaches were then still in use, and 
I made many interesting journeys by coach, and listened with 
interest to the tales of the famous old story-telling drivers. 

In the autumn of 1854 I travelled quite extensively and 
slowly through Belgium, Holland, and Germany and went to 
Rome for the winter. Travelling abroad was not so common 
then as now, and the American Colony in Rome was small, 
but very " select " and social. With a few agreeable young 
men I spent many days in sight-seeing, and we usually met and 
dined together at the restaurant Lepre, where we made the ac- 
quaintance of many of the Roman artists. The American 
sculptor Crawford was then in Rome and doing his best work. 
He was easily the head of the American Colony. 

In March I made a short visit to Naples and, returning, 
joined a family party on a six-day journey to Florence by 
vetturino, and later to Venice in the same way. Of the party 
was Miss Sarah H. Addoms of New York, whom I married in 
the following December. 

I spent the next ten years in and near Boston, at first in the 
crockery business, and, not caring for that, I bought a hundred- 
acre farm in West Roxbury, which I named the " Home 

26 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Farm." I was one of the pioneers of the so-called " Gentle- 
man-farmers," of whom there are now so many. This was 
a most interesting part of my life, and although I gave up 
farming in 1866, the knowledge of agricultural matters which 
I then acquired has added greatly to the pleasure and interest 
of my life, especially when travelling. From that time I never 
ceased to want a farm again. 

In the year 1866 I abandoned farming, went to Europe and 
made Paris my home until 1875 — I had three children who 
required educational opportunities which the farm could not 
afford. So I went into the banking and commission business 
in Paris. My life in Paris, where I was not trying to kill 
time, as so many Americans do, was very interesting. My 
days were spent as by business men at home, with an occa- 
sional holiday for sight-seeing and country excursions. A 
daily ride or drive in the Bois, the best theatres in the world, 
the galleries and the street sights, were a never-ending source 
of interest and pleasure. Housekeeping was easy, and my 
children had all the educational advantages which Paris 
afforded, but, in my opinion, they are not equal to those in 
this country. My summers were spent at St. Germain, quite 
near to Paris. The French Empire was then at the height of 
its glory. In the year 1867, the year of the Great Exposition, 
Paris was visited by all the crowned heads of Europe, and they 
were entertained with all the splendor of which Paris was 
capable. 

I was visiting in this country with my family when the 
Franco-Prussian War broke out and remained here until the 
Prussians entered Paris, when I hastened to return to my 
business and my Paris home. But on reaching Queenstown 
we heard of the breaking out of the Commune. Consequently 
we remained in and near London until the Commune was 
crushed by the government troops. Meanwhile I made a visit 
to Paris on business, the events of which may be of interest. 
All of us who have been abroad remember the excitement at- 
tending the arrival of the Calais train at the depot of the 
Chemin de Fer du Nord in Paris — the large and small omni- 
buses meeting the usually large number of passengers. My 

27 



Harvard Class of 1853 



arrival witnessed a different scene. I and one other were the 
only passengers. It did not take long to pass my trunk 
through the douane, and I entered the only omnibus at the 
station, and the driver placed my trunk inside as a precaution, 
so as not to attract attention as we passed through the almost 
deserted streets to the Hotel Chatham. No difficulty in get- 
ting a room — there were half a dozen guests in all — at the 
hotel. I had the breakfast room to myself, and when I went to 
the usually crowded restaurant on the boulevard and corner of 
the Place de I'Opera, for my dejeuner a la fourchette, I was 
almost the only guest there. Paris was indeed lonely; the 
boulevards were deserted ; most of the shops from the Made- 
laine to the Rue de la Paix, and thence through the Place 
Vendome to the Rue de Rivoli, were closed and placarded with 
" A Louer " on every window pane, and all the glass was 
pasted over with broad strips of paper to prevent breaking 
when the column in the Place Vendome should fall. It was 
still standing, but cut away on the up-street side towards the 
Rue de la Paix as one cuts trees in the forest to fell them ; and 
when I returned to Paris some weeks later the column was 
prostrate, lying on heaps of straw, which had been placed there 
to break the fall, and not a pane of glass was broken, as they 
might have been without the paper strips. 

The day on which I reached Paris had been set apart as a 
day of armistice to enable the non-combatants of Neuilly, who 
had been seeking shelter from the shells of Mt. Valerien in the 
cellars of the houses destroyed in the town, to come into Paris. 
Neuilly had been the battlefield of many combats; the walls 
of the houses, peppered by the Minie rifle balls, showed how 
desperate the fighting had been. The Avenue de la Grande 
Armee, which was in the direct line of fire from Mt. Valerien, 
showed the effects of the terrible bombarding from that fort 
— the central pathway was strewn with broken trees and lamp- 
posts, and the houses on both sides were shattered by the 
shells, and in the courtyards of some of the houses broken 
shells had been made into great piles by the occupants during 
the periods of cessation of firing — but that day the poor 
refugees from Neuilly strolled slowly along, bringing with 

28 



Harvard Class of 1853 



them the few small remains of their household goods which 
they had been able to rescue from their ruined homes. The 
following day the bombardment began again, and the booming 
of the exploding shells was heard through the streets of Paris. 
The streets were deserted, but occasionally one heard the sound 
of drum and fife, and soon would appear a file of the Com- 
mune soldiery, marching and being drilled for defence. They 
were a sorry-looking, desperate crowd, and one could not help 
feeling nervous lest one should himself be forced into the 
ranks. I had a great feeling of relief when, a few days later, 
having finished my business, I had left Paris on the train and 
passed St. Denis and was once more protected by the wearer 
of the Prussian helmet. 

I had come from London to consult a lawyer on important 
business, and found that he was at his country place a few 
miles south of Paris. Horses were scarce in Paris — they 
had all been eaten during the siege ; so I started to walk. My 
route lay through the Barriere d'Enfer. But I was not per- 
mitted to pass. My American passport would not avail. I 
must get a passport from the Commune. So to the police 
headquarters I went, and was addressed by a man in shabby 
dress sitting at the desk with, " Eh bien, Citoyen ! que voulez- 
vous ? " Finally I was provided with a pass permitting me to 
go and return, it being stated therein that I was born in the 
" departement " of the " Etats Unis " ; the employe not dream- 
ing that said department was not in France. So my sortie and 
entree being provided, I left Paris through the Barriere 
d'Enfer, the same guarded strongly by soldiers and almost 
impassable chevaux de frise beyond the gates. I had about 
five miles to walk, along a straight road, between forts on 
either side, both belching forth shells into Paris. Before I left 
I was told that on foot I would be safe, but I did not feel 
very sure of it, and was right glad when I reached Paris again 
alive after transacting my business. 

My next visit to Paris was by the first train which left Lon- 
don after the Commune was crushed and the city taken by the 
government troops. I arrived early on Sunday morning, and 
spent several days driving about the city, seeing the fearful 

29 



Harvard Class of 1853 



destruction by the petroleuses; the barricades had not been 
removed, and many were the signs of the desperate fighting 
which had taken place behind them. By degrees the city took 
on its former aspect to a certain extent, but Paris has never 
again been the Paris of the Empire. We Republicans really 
enjoyed the pageant of the Empire. 

I reestablished my business in Paris at No. lo, Place Ven- 
dome, and continued to do business there under the firm name 
of Andrews & Co. until 1875, when I closed my affairs and 
returned to Boston. The War had temporarily made business 
in Paris unprofitable. 

Since that time my life in this country has had no incidents 
especially worth recording. It has been varied, however. I 
have occupied several business positions. I spent seven years 
in New York, and one year in Norfolk, Virginia, erecting a 
plant for creosoting timber, which was destroyed by fire soon 
after it went into operation. I later accepted the position of 
Manager for Eastern New England in the Equitable Life 
Insurance Society, where I remained several years, and was 
then made President of the Security Safe Deposit Company, 
in the Equitable Building in Boston, during five years. Find- 
ing life in that occupation uninteresting, I gave it up, and since 
then, while having sufficient interests to keep me in touch 
with the business world, I have mostly led a life of leisure, 
getting more out of life than would have been possible had 
I remained active in affairs. My wife died in 1893, and I 
have since made my home with my two daughters on Beacon 
Street. 

We have for many years spent the summers in the country 
in hired houses, at Beverly ; Milton ; Ridgefield, Connecticut ; 
and Cornish, New Hampshire, where I am summering at pres- 
ent, in one of the most beautiful parts of New England. 

Very few, I think, of my classmates have had such a varied 
life as I have, and perhaps it has left with me as many interest- 
ing experiences to think about, and probably more, than had 
my life been wholly spent in one kind of profession or business. 
Very truly. Your classmate 

Edward Reynolds Andrews. 
30 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Boston, March 20th, 1913. 

At the last annual dinner of the Class of 1853, it was decided 
to publish the memoranda of the lives of those members who 
had passed away, which Secretary Shaw had gathered from 
the members themselves and from other sources, so that we 
and the families of those who are gone might know the story 
of their lives during the long period of some sixty-four years 
since we entered Harvard in 1849. It is contemplated that we 
who are left should bring our records up to date. We are no 
longer young, but most of us are still actively engaged in some 
useful occupation. One of the pleasant events in our class his- 
tory since graduating was a dinner given, October 2, 1889, at 
Taft's famous tavern at Point Shirley, to our classmate Eliot, 
in celebration of the twentieth year of his inauguration as 
President of Harvard College. Twenty-seven members of the 
class were present, and only five of these are now living. I 
was at that time much interested in photography, and I took 
a picture of the other twenty-six. I also compiled the Class- 
Album containing portraits of most of the members of the 
class, taken at the time of graduation and again about forty 
years later. This Album Crocker generously gave to each 
member of the class. 

Portrait-photography was introduced about 1853, and we 
were the first class to make use of it. These portraits were 
called crystallotypes and present the reverse side of the face. 

Since my return to this country to live, I have made two 
trips to Europe. In 1896 I spent a few months travelling 
through France and England, and, in 1904, yielding to a great 
desire to see Rome again after an absence of fifty years, I 
sailed in November, with my two daughters, on the S.S. 
" Canopic," landing at Naples. After a few days there, we 
reached Rome, where we spent the winter, followed by a trip 
to Southern Italy and Sicily in the spring. Later we went on 
to Florence, where I was very ill with pneumonia, in conse- 
quence of which we spent the summer quietly in the Tyrol, 
followed by a second winter in Rome. 

In the year 1896 I joined the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Club, which was founded in 1840 by several business men of 

31 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Boston who were interested in agriculture and horticulture. 
In its early days the club met every Saturday for a noon- 
dinner at Colonel Crocket's stage house in Bromfield Street. 
This was a hostelry much frequented by countrymen, but it 
disappeared many years ago, and a Methodist church now oc- 
cupies its site. 

The club is still active, but meets only on the first Saturday 
of each month, and at Young's Hotel. The dinner of March 
I, 1 9 13, was the 656th since its birth in 1840. Our classmate 
Clark was its Secretary and induced me to join, and through 
the conversations of the dinner-table I became interested again 
in farming. 

After my return from Europe in 1906 I purchased a large 
farm in Putney, Vermont, and am devoting my energies to 
carrying it on as far as I can in the latest scientific methods. 
I have a fine herd of Guernsey cattle and a flock of Horned 
Dorset sheep. It is a dairy farm, and my aim is to make 
choice table-butter, which is mainly supplied to clubs in Boston. 
In raising pure-bred animals and in striving to make two 
blades of grass grow where one grew before, I am passing 
in the company of my daughters a tranquil life. All this I 
am finding, now at the age of eighty-one, a most interesting 
and absorbing occupation. 

Edward Reynolds Andrews. 

GORDON BARTLET, 

Son and eldest child of Stephen and Mary Gordon 
(Plummer) Bartlet, both originally of Newburyport, was 
born at Eastport, Maine, on February 16, 1833. When very 
young, his parents removed to Charlestown, Massachusetts, 
where he began his preparatory education. He entered the 
Boston Latin School in 1846, and at the end of a short 
course of three years entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 
He had a very exceptional faculty for acquiring languages. 

On graduating, in 1853, he adopted the profession of 
teacher, which he followed as sub-master until the year 1861, 
first at the Lynn High School, and afterwards, during the 
years 1858, 1859, and i860, at the Salem High School. The 

32 



Harvard Class of 1853 



resolutions passed at his decease by the Salem High School 
Association, and the speeches made on that occasion by the 
principal of the school and others, testified to the high regard 
in which he was held, not only for his great and varied ac- 
quirements as a scholar, but also for the spirit of kindliness, 
forbearance, and Christian manliness which marked his char- 
acter at all times. 

After leaving Salem he opened a private school for young 
ladies on Springfield Street, Boston, and lastly, in 1864, en- 
gaged in the furniture business on Merrimac Street and Canal 
Street in Boston, as partner in the firm of Allen, Cheney & 
Bartlet, continuing to reside at Salem, where he died on 
December 21, 1867. He kept up his studies, however, trans- 
lating much, especially from the Northern languages. His 
last work, pursued during his sickness, was from the Greek, 
" The Antigone of Sophocles." 

Bartlet married, August 3, 1859, Mary E. Andrews, of 
Clinton, Louisiana, daughter of Thomas Lathrop and Louisa 
(Tyson) Andrews; she had been a pupil of his at Lynn, 
and he left at his decease his wife and three children, 
Louisa Tyson (since Wyatt), Gordon Plummer, and Jane 
Andrews. 

Bartlet was Senior Warden of St. Peter's Church, Salem, 
and the resolutions of the Wardens and Vestry at his decease 
characterized him as " a Christian, humble and devout ; a 
churchman, clear in his convictions and consistent in his 
practice; a prudent counsellor; a scholar of ripe and varied 
attainments; a generous friend; a large-hearted man; an 
officer whose place we cannot fill; a man whom in his life 
we trusted and esteemed, and one whom, even in the unseen 
world, we would fain follow with respect and honor." 

JOSIAH KENDALL BENNETT, 

Son of JosiAH Kendall and Lucinda Hall (Nutting) 
Bennett, was born at Groton, Massachusetts, on February 
4, 1 83 1. Sickness and straitened means weighed heavily 
on Bennett's early years ; in his own language, " in the in- 
tervals of tolerable health his hand was given to labor and 



Harvard Class of 1853 



his head to study," mathematics having a special attraction 
for him. A violent fever in 1846 nearly proved fatal to him. 
It was not until 1847 that systematic instruction began, when 
he entered Lawrence Academy at Groton, then under the 
Rev. James Means, to whom, and to his other teachers, he 
felt under great obligations. Fourteen weeks in the winter 
of 1848-49 were devoted to teaching a district school. He 
entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. The first two years 
in college passed very smoothly. At the end of the Sopho- 
more year a fancy seized him to pass a year at Yale, where 
he was admitted to the Junior class on examination, and 
where he formed many close attachments. Returning to 
Harvard in accordance with a previous understanding with 
President Sparks, he there passed his Senior year. He gradu- 
ated with high rank, having for his Commencement part a 
dissertation on " Public Spirit in India." 

Immediately on graduating he became master of the Hop- 
kins Classical School at Cambridge, and held the office until 
the school was merged in the Cambridge High School in the 
following year. In September, 1854, he entered the Har- 
vard Law School. After an interruption in 1855 he re- 
commenced his studies in that institution in September of 
that year and took his degree of LL.B. in 1856. In the 
meantime his studies were not limited to that of the law. 
He had begun writing for the religious press, and was the 
author of an article in the " Bibliotheca Sacra " for July, 1856, 
on " Aliens in Israel." He was admitted to the Bar on 
November 22, 1856. After practising law for about three 
years in Boston, having an office with Lyman Mason, Esq., 
at 20 Court Street, and at the same time offices in Groton 
and Groton Junction, he finally settled at Groton, which re- 
mained his residence up to the last two months of his life. 
Here he became an active and public-spirited townsman, keep- 
ing up at the same time a remarkable amount of literary 
work and contributing to the " Congregationalist " and other 
papers. It is said that he could read fourteen or fifteen 
languages, among them Sanscrit, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon. 
Several of his translations from the German and other lan- 

34 



Harvard Class of 1853 



guages have been published and have met with a favorable 
reception. 

On June 27, 1863, he v^as chosen one of the Trustees of 
the Lawrence Academy at Groton, and continued a member 
of the Board until the time of his death. During the whole 
of this period he was secretary of the Board and an active 
member of several important committees. On March 6, 1865, 
he was elected a member of the S-chool Committee of Groton, 
and served in that capacity for eight years, and was the author 
of several annual reports, extracts from which were fre- 
quently incorporated in the report of the State Board of 
Education. For many years he was a member of the Groton 
Musical Society. He was a communicant of the Union Con- 
gregational Church, Superintendent of the Sunday School, 
and Clerk of the Parish. In 1872 he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Washburn Judge of the First District Court of Northern 
Middlesex, then just established at Ayer — a position which 
he held until his death, but his tenure of office was not des- 
tined to be of long duration. The ill-health from which he 
had suffered from his earliest youth developed into consump- 
tion, and for the last year of his life he could speak only in 
a whisper. He continued, however, to perform his judicial 
duties until the week preceding his death. By the advice 
of his physician he had gone to reside at Ayer two months 
before that event, which occurred on January 23, 1874. 

Bennett was married, on June 29, 1865, to Abby Ann, 
daughter of Reuben Lewis land Lucinda (Hill) Torrey, of 
Groton. His widow, a son, James Torrey, born May 30, 
1 87 1, and a daughter, Beatrice Ethel, bom September 22, 
1873, survived him. 

CHARLES FREDERIC BLAKE, 

Son of William and Margaret Elizabeth (Kupfer) 
Blake, was born at Boston, February 16, 1834. He was pre- 
pared for college at the Boston Latin School, entering in 
1844, and became a member of the Freshman class at Har- 
vard in 1849. On leaving college he went abroad with a 
view of continuing his academic studies, and began a course 

S5 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of philosophy at Heidelberg, but soon changed to the study 
of law, of which Mittermaier was then the distinguished 
professor. He was also for some time at Berlin, where he 
enjoyed the friendship of the eminent jurist Gneist, and per- 
fected himself in the German language. He received his 
degree of J.U.D. at Heidelberg in 1855, returned to the 
United States, and, on March 6, 1856, entered the Harvard 
Law School. He took his degree of LL.B. at Commence- 
ment, 1857, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar at Boston 
on the 15th of the following September. From 1858 to 1864 
he lived in Boston, engaged in the practice of the law. Hav- 
ing married the daughter of the distinguished General John 
A. Dix of New York, he took up his residence in that city, 
and entered on a successful practice as a patent lawyer. In 
1869 he formed a partnership with Charles M. Keller which 
lasted till the latter's death in October, 1874, when he took 
as a junior partner Edward G. Thompson, who had been 
previously employed in the office of Keller & Blake. 

Blake enjoyed a very high professional reputation, and 
eulogistic tributes were paid to his memory. A resolution 
of the Bar of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern 
District of New York is as follows: ''Resolved, that in his 
special professional practice he had few equals and no supe- 
riors, and his high intellectual ability, his kind and courteous 
manner, his scholarly attainments and his generous nature 
were worthy of the greatest admiration." Ex-Judge Ship- 
man described him as an able, intelligent, and courteous ad- 
vocate and lawyer, strictly devoted to the interests of his 
client and always dealing with the court with perfect frank- 
ness and integrity, and with his case in a manner which 
would enable the court to understand it and to come to a 
just and wise conclusion. Judge Blatchford said : " It is a 
grave mistake to suppose that to make a satisfactory advo- 
cate in patent causes requires that a person should be nothing 
but a specialist on Patent Law. A general knowledge of the 
principles of law and the proper mode of weighing facts, 
obtained from a thorough legal education, is absolutely neces- 
sary to the practice of the Patent Law, as it is to any other 

36 



Harvard Class of 1853 



branch of the law, and when to this qualification is added 
an aptitude for mechanical questions and for the law of 
patents and a genial disposition and a courteous bearing 
toward his brethren at the bar and toward the court, and 
a high tone of character — all of which qualities Mr. Blake 
possessed in an eminent degree — you have, according to my 
observation and from my standpoint of view, a model lawyer 
in patent cases, a lawyer always serviceable to his clients and 
always serviceable to the court." 

Blake's death was never thoroughly accounted for. His 
body was found floating in the North River, near the end of 
West 40th Street, in the forenoon of Monday, February 21, 
1 88 1. He had left his partner's house at about half-past 
eleven on the previous evening, and had but a short distance 
to go to reach his own. There were no indications of rob- 
bery or violence of any kind. His watch and money were 
intact. No motive for suicide could be suspected. The most 
plausible explanation of the case is to be found in his habit 
of taking long walks, in pursuance of a system of exercise 
prescribed in order to reduce his flesh. This sometimes led 
him to out-of-the-way places, and, amongst others, according 
to the account of a friend, he had found the river at night, 
with its lights, interesting. It seems probable that he acci- 
dentally fell in, early on the morning of the 21st, as his 
watch had stopped at 1.45. 

Blake was married, on April 11, i860, at Trinity Chapel, 
New York, to Elizabeth Morgan, daughter of General John 
Adams and Catherine (Morgan) Dix. He left a widow, who 
died in 1899, and four children, — 

Catherine Morgan, born February 19, 1861 ; unmarried 
January, 1903, and living in England. 

Margaret Kupfer, born August 19, 1862; married an Eng- 
lishman, Lascelles Hoyle, living near Manchester. 

Morgan Dix, born January 29, 1870; married a Canadian; 
practising medicine in Kent. 

Elizabeth Morgan, born January 13, 1872; unmarried, 
January, 1903. 



S7 



Harvard Class of 1853 



GEORGE HENRY BLANCHARD, 

Son of John A. and Sarah (Harding) Blanchard, was 
born at Boston, July ii, 1833; entered the Boston Latin 
School in 1844, where he particularly distinguished himself 
by his declamation, and was admitted to Harvard in 1849 as 
Freshman. His part at Commencement was a dissertation, 
" The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini." In his Sopho- 
more year he took the First Boylston Prize in declamation. 

Soon after leaving college he spent about a year in India, 
and on returning to Boston engaged in the Calcutta business, 
in which he showed ability and sound judgment. He joined 
the Independent Corps of Cadets, becoming a valuable mem- 
ber, and as Lieutenant did useful work at the outbreak of the 
War in drilling Harvard men at the Cambridge Arsenal. He 
was offered the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel in one of 
the Massachusetts regiments, which a severe hemorrhage 
compelled him to refuse. He was never well afterwards, and 
went to Europe for his health in the summer of 1863. He 
spent the winter of 1863-64 at Rome, and was in Paris in the 
following summer, where his classmate Clark saw him. Al- 
though far gone in consumption, he had bright views of his 
future, but returned to Boston in October, and died unmar- 
ried on the 24th of that month. 

CHARLES EDWARD BRIGGS, 

Son of Robert and Caroline (Morton) Briggs, was 
born at Boston, on April 6, 1833. His early years were 
passed in Weston, Massachusetts. On his father's side he 
was descended from Walter Briggs, who in 1643 was of 
Briggs Harbor, Scituate, and on his mother's side from the 
Brewsters and from George Morton, a member, in 161 2, of 
Robinson's congregation at Leyden, who came to Plymouth 
in 1623 in the " Ann." 

His early education was in the grammar schools of Boston, 
and he prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, 
entering Harvard in 1849. He had a great love of books, 
much refinement of taste, and a serious disposition, and his 
Commencement part, a disquisition, " Thomas-a-Kempis," 

S8 



Harvard Class of 1853 



seemed extremely well suited to him. On leaving college he 
immediately began the study of medicine at the Harvard 
Medical School, and took his degree of M.D. in 1856. In the 
summer of that year he made a voyage to England as Sur- 
geon of the ship " Jeremiah Thompson " belonging to the 
Trains of Boston, and had an opportunity of visiting Lon- 
don, which he was well prepared to enjoy. Continuing the 
practice of medicine in Boston under discouraging circum- 
stances, he was not sorry at the end of the year 1857 to take 
the position of Surgeon on the brig " Newsboy," sailing from 
Norfolk to the Azores, in the hope that change of scene and 
occupation would give him fresh energy to encounter the 
difficulties of a young practitioner. After some delay at 
Norfolk, he sailed on January 13, and landed at Fayal, Feb- 
ruary I, 1858. The return voyage began on the 6th, but a 
severe storm disabled the ship, a sailor's leg was broken, and 
the captain put back to Fayal, thereby giving Briggs an op- 
portunity to see more of the island and its society, as well 
as to render some professional services to which he was 
called. Sailing again on February 23, he reached Norfolk 
on March 21 after a rough passage. 

In the year 1859 the death of his father broke up the 
family home at Boston and ended his practice there. From 
now until the second year of the Civil War he was engaged 
in teaching Latin and Greek, first at Burlington College, New 
Jersey, and afterwards at Mr. Churchill's Military Academy 
at Sing Sing, New York. This enforced change in his life's 
plan was not entirely satisfactory nor wholly irksome, but 
at the end of the school year of 1861-62 he decided to offer 
his services to the cause of the Union, and on August 12, 
1862, was commissioned Assistant Surgeon in the 24th Regi- 
ment of Massachusetts Volunteers, of which Thomas G. 
Stevenson was Colonel, the regiment being then in camp at 
New Berne, North Carolina, where he arrived on August 28. 
Hospital work kept him very busy, but nothing eventful hap- 
pened until December, when an expedition the object of which 
was the interruption of railroad connection at Goldsboro, at 
the crossing of two roads from Savannah northward and 

59 



Harvard Class of 1853 



from Wilmington westward, was organized by Major-Gen- 
eral John G. Foster, commanding the Department of North 
Carolina. 

Dr. Briggs was detailed, at the last moment before start- 
ing, to the 27th Massachusetts, forming part of Colonel 
Horace C. Lee's rear brigade. The first camp, which was 
reached late at night, presented a very striking sight, with its 
many fires and swarming thousands of men. Pitch-pine trees 
were set on fire if rom root to summit, making pillars of flame. 
As the force advanced, they caught up with the wounded of the 
regiments that had preceded them. A barnlike meeting-house, 
near which the fight at Kinston had taken place, had been 
made a depot for the wounded, who lay on the floor in their 
agonies, and presented perhaps the most shocking sight of 
the expedition. The 27th Regiment was not fairly engaged 
until the 17th at Goldsboro, where Briggs was initiated into 
field duties and performed an operation while lying on the 
ground in the midst of a battery in action. The position of 
Goldsboro was too favorable for the massing of the enemy 
for defence when the point of attack became known to them, 
and after twisting the rails for a short distance it was judged 
best to retreat. In the next month, January, 1863, the regi- 
ment was ordered to South Carolina, and went into camp at 
St. Helena Island. Being left entirely unmolested by the 
Confederates in this position, about six weeks were spent 
quietly here, with opportunities of excursions to Beaufort and 
elsewhere, and of studying the negro question at first hand. 
At the end of March the order came to move northward in 
aid of the operations before Charleston, and the regiment was 
stationed on Seabrook Island near the north shore of Edisto 
Inlet until the July following, when the command, excepting 
the invalids and four companies of the 24th who were left 
in charge of Dr. Briggs, was ordered to James Island in the 
immediate vicinity of Charleston. The subsequent evacuation 
of Seabrook Island, the getting off of more than one hun- 
dred patients in expectation of immediate attack during a 
cannonade, and the sole charge on Morris Island of the 
regiment with a sick-list of between two and three hundred, 

40 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gave the final blow to Dr. Briggs's already failing health, and 
resulted in a severe attack of dysentery in August. He was 
taken to the hospital at Beaufort, South Carolina, and, while 
there, was cheered by the news of the capture of Forts 
Wagner and Gregg. Towards the end of September he re- 
turned to his regiment on Morris Island, and found that the 
sick-list of the 24th had become so fearfully large as to call 
for immediate removal to St. Augustine, Florida. Early in 
October he was at St. Augustine, and for a time was Post 
Surgeon and on duty at Fort Marion, the old castle of San 
Marco, and a great improvement in the health of the men 
took place. The regiment spent the winter at St. Augustine 
and at Jacksonville. In the meantime Briggs was commis- 
sioned Surgeon of the 54th Massachusetts negro regiment 
(Colonel Shaw's), then commanded by Colonel Hallowell, his 
commission being dated November 24, 1863, but he was not 
mustered out of the 24th until April 26, 1864. In May he 
began service as Surgeon of the 54th on Morris Island. It was 
a period of comparative inactivity, except for an unsuccessful 
attack on the enemy's lines on James Island under General 
Schimmelpfennig, of whom Briggs gave his impressions as 
follows : " He suffers from every known disease and lives on 
kimmel. In the late James Island expedition I had occasion 
to carry some document to him. He sat in a large chair on 
the raised floor of a house whose walls had been pulled down, 
leaving the roof supported by the framework. He has a crook 
in his shoulders, and as he sat there, a puny man, with a 
pale absorbed face, he looked strangely like a Richard III. 
His voice is cracked, and he frequently says * damnation ' and 
' hell ' as if he were a creature of dramatic art." In Novem- 
ber, 1864, Briggs was one of the operating surgeons at Bolan's 
Church, when the wounded numbered about six hundred men. 
At the end of November Briggs was with the eight com- 
panies of the 54th that were sent to Hilton Head to form 
part of the " Coast Division," consisting of five thousand 
men under General Hatch, with orders to cooperate with 
General Sherman in his march to the sea. On the 29th they 
started up the Broad River, and on the 30th were repulsed 

41 



Harvard Class of 1853 



at a point on the Gainesville Road, in an engagement known 
as the Battle of Honey Hill, by a much smaller force strongly 
intrenched. Briggs had a day of the severest work as field 
surgeon in a hospital installed in Eutaw Church. A retreat 
was made to the landing, but on December i lines were again 
advanced, and finally, on January 15, 1865, the regiment met 
the 17th Corps of Sherman's army at Pocotaligo. The troops 
to which Briggs was attached remained near Pocotaligo until 
Charleston was evacuated by Hardee, and then on February 
27 proceeded to occupy that city. The object of two years' 
struggle by sea and by land for the possession of this impor- 
tant place was at last secured, and garrison life, with a roof 
over one's head — free communication with the North, bring- 
ing letters, friends, and abundant supplies — made it a de- 
lightful spot. Two weeks at Savannah were full of novelty 
and interest. 

" Potter's Raid," an expedition organized in April, 1865, 
for the destruction of railroads, rolling stock, and cotton in 
South Carolina, was the last in which the 54th was engaged. 
Starting from Georgetown, it lasted twenty-one days, and 
w^as entirely successful, penetrating the interior as far as 
Camden. A severe skirmish at Boykin's Mills near that place 
is the last battle inscribed in Briggs's military record. Just 
as the regiment was marching past the plantation of General 
Wade Hampton, April 19, 1865, news was received of the 
surrender of Lee. On the regiment's return to Charleston 
Briggs was on duty at the citadel, and on August 20, 1865, 
was mustered out. 

Major Emilio's reminiscences of Dr. Briggs of the 54th 
Massachusetts, of which both were officers, and whose chron- 
icler the Major became, remained to the date of this writing 
** most pleasant in every way." Major Emilio was the junior- 
commissioned Captain of that gallant regiment, and so com- 
plete was its annihilation at the bloody assault upon Fort 
Wagner that the then Captain Emilio was left the ranking 
officer of the remnant that survived, forced to assume com- 
mand and restore order. He says of Dr. Briggs: " He came 
to us after some two years' experience as Assistant Surgeon 

42 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of the 24th Massachusetts infantry, and served as Surgeon of 
the 54th Massachusetts until its muster-out, August 20, 1865. 
He was devoted to the sick in hospitals, and obtained high 
rank as a Surgeon for operations in camp and on the field. 
... In the '80s, the Officers' Association of the 54th Regi- 
ment requested from the surviving officers sketches of their 
lives. The original writings were unfortunately destroyed in 
the first Chelsea fire, together with the books and records of 
the Association. These sketches had before passed through 
my hands as the historian of the corps. From them I ex- 
tracted the main facts, and entered such in a book under the 
names of the several officers. I gladly give you what there 
is under Dr. Briggs's name." Major Emilio then recalls de- 
tails which have contributed much to this memorial sketch. 

After considering the possibilities of other Western cities 
for building up a practice, Briggs settled at St. Louis in 
1866, and met with a favorable reception. 

On June 24, 1869, he was married to Rebekah, daughter 
of Francis and Ann (M other AA^ell) Whittaker, who originally 
were of Dublin, Ireland. 

The remainder of Dr. Briggs's life was spent in profes- 
sional activity, relieved by summer vacations at Evequeton- 
sing. Little Traverse Bay, Lake Michigan, and by occasional 
visits to the East. Once again only he bore arms, in the 
St. Louis strike riots. He contributed to medical periodicals; 
delivered lectures on physiology and diseases of children, as 
professor at the St. Louis College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons; was Vice-President of the St. Louis Medical Society; 
delegate to the International Medical Congress at Philadel- 
phia, in 1876; Professor of Diseases of Children in the Post- 
Graduate School of Medicine of St. Louis; on continued ser- 
vice at the House of the Good Shepherd, and delegate to 
various national and diocesan Episcopal conventions. His 
health had given cause for alarm for some time, when he 
became a patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital at 
Boston, and, after a severe surgical operation, he died there 
on June 17, 1894. He left a widow and four children, — 
Caroline Morton, born April 4, 1870 (married to John Cod- 

43 



Harvard Class of 1853 



man, H. U. '85) ; Walter Motherwell, born December 9, 1871, 
H. U. '95; Paul Robert, born February 16, 1873; Charles 
Harold, born November 7, 1874. 

fRebekah, widow of Dt. Charles E. Briggs, died at Santa 
Barbara, California, in her sixty-sixth year, November 23, 
1912. 

JOSEPH MANSFIELD BROWN, 

Son of Joseph Mansfield and Margaret Stackpole 
(Welch) Brown, was born in Boston, August 17, 1832, and 
was graduated at the Public Latin School in 1849, and from 
Harvard University in 1853. 

He organized at Harvard, in his Junior year, with Dr. James 
M. Whitton, of Yale '53, the first intercollegiate contest in 
this country — the first boat-race between Harvard and Yale, 
which was rowed on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, 
August 3, 1852. The victorious Harvard crew was composed 
of Curtis, T. J., Dwight, Willard, all of '52; Paine, C. J., 
Hurd, Cunningham, Livermore, Miles, and Brown, J. M., 
Captain, all of '53. Six of the crew served in the Union Army 
during the War of the Rebellion. Of the nine three — Brown, 
Dwight, and Paine — are still living; one was killed at Freder- 
icksburg; one died from the result of wounds received at the 
Wilderness. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the event was commemorated 
in 1902 by a dinner at the University Club of New York. 
Twelve of the sixteen survivors of the three crews taking 
part in the contest at Lake Winnipesaukee were present, and, 
in addition, as invited guests, the two stroke-oarsmen repre- 
senting the 'Varsity crews of 1902. President Hadley, in 
his letter " of greeting on behalf of Yale University, to those 
who are celebrating the semi-centennial of American inter- 
collegiate athletics," says : " I shall not try to moralize on 
the varied results, in our colleges and out of them, which 
have sprung from the movement of which the crews of 1852 
were the pioneers. Let me rather send words of personal 
congratulation to those pioneers themselves, that they are 
able, after the lapse of so many years, to gather together and 

44) 



Harvard Class of 1853 



renew a friendship between Universities and their sons, which 
has always been characteristic of our oldest institutions of 
learning, and which I trust will grow stronger and stronger 
as each half -century goes on." 

After graduation, Brown settled at Detroit, and engaged 
in the manufacture of lumber, with Samuel Fitts & Co., who 
had mills at that place. Upon the breaking out of the War 
of the Rebellion, he was appointed a Lieutenant in the ist 
U. S. (Michigan) Lancers, and served in Kentucky. In 1862 
he was commissioned by Governor Andrew a First Lieutenant 
in the famous 2d Massachusetts Cavalry, commanded by 
General Charles Russell Lowell (H. U. '54), the regiment 
being officered largely by graduates of Harvard. He served 
during the War in the grades of First Lieutenant, Captain, 
and Major, and was brevetted Lieutenant-<Colonel. He re- 
mained in the military service until July i, 1872, 

Towards the close of the War, Brown was employed as 
Assistant Quartermaster General on the staff of General O. O. 
Howard at Washington, D. C, while the General was organ- 
izing the Freedman's Bureau. Both before and after the 
installing of that new agency for reaching the negroes. Brown 
had almost exclusive charge of the colored population of 
Washington, Arlington, and the District of Columbia. This 
function he discharged to great acceptance. It involved, be- 
sides his close relations with the negroes as their disbursing 
officer, and the investigating of claims for bounty brought 
by colored soldiers and sailors, an infinite amount of labor 
in following up demands against the government made by 
residents of the South, on account of alleged depredations, 
and supplies claimed to have been furnished, and exorbitant 
bills rendered for repairs really made on hospitals and 
barracks. 

Brown was recommended by Governor Andrew for, and 
received an appointment in the regular army, in the 8th 
Regiment of Cavalry, organized in 1866, but this he declined. 
He was married, February 13, 1866, to Mary Virginia Roy- 
ston. He has had three children: two died in infancy; the 
third, a son, died at the age of fourteen. He has resided, 

45 



Harvard Class of 1853 



since 1872, except for short periods in New York and Detroit, 
in Washington, D. C. 

ALBERT GALLATIN BROWNE, 

The youngest member of the Class of '53, son of Albert 
G. and Sarah Smith (Cox) Browne, was born at Salem, 
Massachusetts, February 14, 1835. His mother was a 
sister of the esteemed physician of Essex County, Dr. 
Benjamin Cox (H. U. '26). A grandfather of his father 
was ItaHan. 

He was fitted for college at the Latin Grammar School in 
Salem, of which the eminent teacher, Oliver Carlton, was 
then master. On completing his course there in 1848, at the 
age of thirteen, he was considered by his father to be too 
young for the University, and his studies were continued 
under Rufus Putnam, one of his former teachers, during 
the following year, at the end of which he entered Harvard 
as Freshman. 

His college course was not wholly smooth and uninter- 
rupted, but it ended with distinction, the part given him at 
Commencement being an English poem on Lady Arbella John- 
son. He contributed the conventional ode for the Gradua- 
tion Supper, and, later, charming lines for a dinner given by 
Clark to Eliot at Taft's, in October, 1889. 

He entered the Dane Law School on September 2, 1853, 
and it was during his second term in that institution that 
the memorable affair of the arrest and attempted rescue of 
the fugitive slave, Anthony Burns, occurred. He inherited 
from his father, an earnest abolitionist, ardent antislavery 
sentiments, which, with his naturally combative temperament 
and the enthusiasm of youth, combined to make him an ac- 
tive belligerent. He was arrested on the evening of the 
attack on the Court House, May 26, 1854, during which an 
employee of the U. S. Marshal was shot. With others, he was 
brought before the Police Court on the charge of murder, 
and committed to the Suffolk jail, where the tedium of con- 
finement was alleviated by the mass of flowers which made 
his cell to " blossom as the rose," but, the complaint being 

46 



Harvard Class of 1853 



reduced to one of riot, he was admitted to bail on June 7. 
The Grand Jury found no indictment. 

After leaving the Law School in 1854, and feeling the 
desire for a more complete academic education, he went to 
Europe and studied at Heidelberg, where he took his degree 
of Ph.D. in 1855. Dwight was there as a traveller and Blake 
as a student. Returning, he resumed his law studies in the 
office of John A. Andrew, at the same time doing editorial 
work with Samuel Bowles on the " Boston Atlas." On De- 
cember 8, 1856, he was admitted to the Bar, and became 
associated with Mr. Andrew in his law practice at 19 Court 
Street, Boston. 

In 1857 the Mormon Territory of Utah was considered 
to be in a state of open insurrection against the authority of 
the United States. A body of United States troops was sent 
by President Buchanan, under the command of Colonel Al- 
bert Sidney Johnston, to reduce it to order. Browne, whose 
inclinations were divided between law and journalism, now 
turned his attention to the latter, and accompanied the ex- 
pedition as correspondent of the " New York Tribune." The 
army suffered severely from the rigors of the season and 
from the failure of supplies, and a small party, of which 
Browne was one, was sent in midwinter across the Rocky 
Mountains with despatches for General Scott. " And there 
was not a day when any stronger barrier than the lives of 
a few half-starved mules interposed between them and 
famine." He has left a record of his impressions of the 
country and the people in articles which appeared in the 
" Atlantic Monthly " in 1859. His remarks on the relations 
of the general government to that of territories show a polit- 
ical sagacity quite precocious. 

In 1859 ^^<^ i860 we find him in Washington, engaged in 
law business in some way connected with the British Lega- 
tion, and also employed as a correspondent of the " Boston 
Daily Advertiser." In i860 he appeared in the United States 
District Court as junior counsel to Mr. Andrew in the, for 
him, somewhat singular attempt to save a slave-ship from 
condemnation. The career of the yacht " Wanderer " had 

47 



Harvard Class of 1853 



been a romantic one. Built on Long Island, she had acquired 
an extensive reputation for her model and her sailing quali- 
ties, and had already brought home to her Southern owner 
a cargo of negroes from Africa. In the course of the second 
voyage, and, in the absence of the master, she was seized 
by the crew, brought into Boston, surrendered to the United 
States authorities, and condemned — a result to which her 
defenders, having done what they could to prevent it, were 
no doubt resigned. 

On the opening of Governor Andrew's administration it 
became evident that there was necessity for assistance of a 
confidential nature in the Executive Department. Adjutant- 
General Schouler, in his account of " Massachusetts in the 
Rebellion," records as follows the value of Colonel Browne's 
services in this capacity, after describing the delicacy of a 
confidential and important mission suggested to Governor 
Andrew by Charles Francis Adams, and upon which the Gov- 
ernor, before he slept on his inauguration night, had sent 
Browne as a messenger to the Governors of New Hampshire 
and Maine, urging them to mobilize their troops without 
delay. General Schouler's acknowledgment is in these words : 

" One of the suggestions of Mr. Adams was, that there 
should be public demonstrations of loyalty throughout New 
England, and it was proposed by him to have salutes fired 
in each of the six States on the 8th of January — the an- 
niversary of General Jackson's victory at New Orleans. 
Colonel Wardrop, of New Bedford — of the Third Regiment 
of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia — was sent to Governor 
Fairbanks, of Vermont; and other messengers were sent to 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, for 
this purpose. Among these messengers was the gentleman 
who afterwards became Governor Andrew's private military 
secretary — Colonel Albert G. Browne, of Salem — and who 
served him during the entire war; and who, for ability as 
a ready writer, truthfulness, sturdy independence, reticence, 
and undoubted patriotism, deserved as he received the respect 
and confidence of the Governor, of the entire Staff, and of 
gentlemen holding confidential and important relations with 

48 



Harvard Class of 1853 



His Excellency. Colonel Browne's mission was to confer 
with Governor Goodwin, of New Hampshire, and Governor 
Washburn, of Maine. Besides the mere duty of organizing 
public demonstrations, he was intrusted, as to the Governor 
of Maine, with a mission of a far more important character. 
Maine and Massachusetts, being subject to a common State 
Government until 1820, sustained peculiar relations to each 
other, through similarity of legislation, of institutions, and, 
in later years, of political sentiment. Colonel Browne was 
entrusted with the whole of the before-mentioned private 
correspondence of Governor Andrew with Mr. Adams, and 
was directed to lay it, confidentially, before Governor Wash- 
burn; to advise him that, in Governor Andrew's judgment, 
Civil War was the inevitable result of the events going on 
at Washington and in the South; that the safety of Wash- 
ington was already threatened; that the policy of the Execu- 
tive Government of Massachusetts, under the new adminis- 
tration, would be to put its active militia into readiness at 
once for the impending crisis, and to persuade the Legisla- 
ture, if possible, to call part of the dormant militia into ac- 
tivity; and that Governor Andrew wished to urge Governor 
Washburn to adopt the same policy for Maine." 

The resolve creating the office of " Private Secretary to the 
Governor" was approved January 18, 1861, and the next day 
Browne was appointed to fill it. Subsequently Browne was 
appointed " Military Secretary " under a Commission dated 
May 2y, 1861, and this position — one of great responsibility 
and corresponding labor — he held until July i, 1865. This 
office gave him the title of " Colonel," by which he was some- 
times called, but which his modesty made distasteful to him. 
At the State House he was remembered as an indefatigable 
worker. In the first year of his secretaryship he, with Colonel 
John Reed of the Governor's staff, negotiated the settlement 
under which the national government reimbursed to the State 
the amount of seven hundred and seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars for stores and supplies already furnished, and arranged 
for future transactions of like nature. Before the close of 
the War he declined, at the Governor's request, offers of staff 

49 



Harvard Class of 1853 



commissions with Generals C. F. Smith, Hunter, and Burn- 
side, and the appointment of Commissioner of Internal Rev- 
enue offered by Secretary Chase. 

In 1863 and 1864 he was detailed by General Halleck and 
Secretaries Chase and Seward for confidential duty in South 
Carolina — inquiring into and reporting on the state of the 
Siege of Charleston and of the Blockade. Later in the War, 
his father, who had been appointed Treasury-Agent at Savan- 
nah to take custody and care of captured and abandoned 
property, became so seriously ill that Browne found it neces- 
sary to relieve him, and for some time performed the duties 
of the office. Returning to Boston, he resumed the practice 
of the law, and in 1867 was appointed Reporter of the De- 
cisions of the Supreme Judicial Court — an office which he 
resigned in 1873, after having published volumes 97 to 114 
in the series of Massachusetts Reports. 

Early in 1874 he removed to New York to become manag- 
ing editor of the " New York Evening Post." In 1875 he 
took a position on the editorial staff of the " New York 
Herald," in association with Charles Nordhoff and Dr. Hos- 
mer as council, and became managing editor of the evening 
edition of that paper, " The Telegram." His relations with 
James Gordon Bennett assumed a confidential nature, and 
he was frequently summoned to Paris to advise about the 
conducting of his two journals. Having travelled in Mexico, 
and having acquired an extensive knowledge of South Ameri- 
can affairs, he was sent by Mr. Bennett to Chile in 1883, dur- 
ing the war between that country and Peru — a journey on 
which his wife accompanied him. He was editorial director, 
for several years, on subjects relating to New York City af- 
fairs and to finance. He drew, and through Senator Foster 
procured the introduction of, the Canal amendment to the 
State Constitution. 

In 1887 Browne returned to Boston and became a member 
of the banking house of Cordley & Company, a position which 
he held until his death, and this occurred on June 25, 1891, 
of a disease dating probably from the privations encountered 
in the Utah Expedition, from which he had suffered for many 

50 



Harvard Class of 1853 



years with fortitude, and which debarred him in a great 
measure from sharing the enjoyments of social Hfe. But 
his consolation was in books and in the society of a few 
familiar friends. He left in the minds of all who knew him the 
impression of a singularly active intellect and virile character. 

Browne was married, on June 27, 1867, in New York, by 
Dr. Cheever, to Mattie, daughter of Thomas and Martha 
(Young) Griffith, of Kentucky, who, though born and brought 
up in the midst of slavery, sympathized with her husband in 
his zeal for the antislavery cause, being, in her own words, 
" a born radical who believed in the rights and freedom of 
mankind irrespective of race, color, or condition." With her 
abolitionism was more than a belief. She set free her many 
inherited slaves. Browne left no children. His widow died 
May 25, 1906. 

Among his publications are " In Memoriam of John W. 
Browne," Boston, i860; " Sketch of the Official Life of Gov- 
ernor Andrew," Boston, 1868; reviews of " Humboldt's Cen- 
tenary " and "Mill's Autobiography," 1874; "The Growing 
Power of Chile," New York, 1886; numerous contributions 
to magazine literature in the " North American Review," 
" Atlantic Monthly," " Century," and other serials ; " Latin 
and Saxon America," 1889. In 1875 he contributed to 
" Harper's Weekly " an elaborate review of the " Judicial 
Record of New York Courts in the Tammany (Tweed) and 
Canal Rings," afterwards printed in pamphlet form, with an 
introductory letter by Charles O'Conor, New York, 1896. 

JOHN DUNCAN BRYANT, 

Son of John and Mary Ann (Duncan) Bryant, was 
born in the parish of Meriden and town of Plainfield, New 
Hampshire, October 21, 1829. Both his father's and his 
mother's families were of Massachusetts origin, the former 
being from Plympton and the latter from Haverhill. 

His earlier education was received at Meriden in a private 
school, and later under the instruction of a local clergyman, 
and for a time at the Kimball Union Academy. At about 
his fifteenth year it was proposed that he should complete his 

51 



Harvard Class of 1853 



schooling and fit for college at Boston, while living at the 
house of an aunt. In 1846 he entered the Boston Latin 
School and finished his preparations for college in a three- 
year course, entering Harvard as a Freshman in 1849. 

Family circumstances made it desirable that he should live 
at home rather than at Cambridge, and he v^as excused from 
morning prayers on condition that the exemption should not 
interfere with recitations. In spite of the limited means of 
transportation at that day, and the early hour of the first 
recitation, he never missed once, walking out to Cambridge 
and back to Boston five days out of seven, and keeping a room 
in the college buildings to meet an emergency. Bryant ob- 
tained a high rank, and for his Commencement part had a 
dissertation — " The Disinterment of Nineveh." 

After leaving college he taught for one year in Mr. Epes 
S. Dixwell's private school in Boylston Place. 

A part of the year 1855 was spent at the Harvard Law 
School, and then Bryant entered as a student the office of 
William Dehon, Esq., in the old Scollay Building, which 
formed an island in Scollay Square. 

He was admitted to the Suffolk Bar on July 7, 1856, and 
taken into partnership by Mr. Dehon, a relative — an arrange- 
ment which proved in every way agreeable, owing to the 
professional and personal qualities of the latter, until Mr. 
Dehon's retirement from practice about the year 1875. 

For a few years, 1887-90, Bryant was associated in part- 
nership with Mr. J. Homer Sweetser — a connection termi- 
nated by Mr. Svveetser's engagements in other than law busi- 
ness, but, while it lasted, extremely satisfactory to Bryant. 

Domestic duties and the devotion of a brother restrained 
Bryant from engaging actively in the Civil War, but when 
the 1 2th (Webster) Regiment was raised he was Treasurer 
of the Committee having the matter in charge. 

Bryant was steadily engaged in the exercise of his profes- 
sion from the time he entered it. His work was largely in 
connection with wills and trusts, and led to the management 
of trusts to a considerable extent. Fire and marine insur- 
ance also became almost a specialty in his office. The defence 

52 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of suits against insurance companies of late years constituted 
his principal court practice. 

In addition to strictly professional work Bryant was for 
some years Treasurer of the Sutherland Falls Marble Com- 
pany and Director of the Vermont and Canada Railroad and 
of the Ames Sword Company. 

Bryant enjoyed a lucrative practice. He left a large for- 
tune and a very long will, including public bequests to the 
amount of $140,000. One important clause of the will was 
decided to be void and set aside after litigation, so that his 
name may be added to the list of well-read lawyers who have 
made similar mistakes. 

To his friends and classmates, however, the most character- 
istic and interesting feature of the will is his sturdy profes- 
sion of attachment to the older customs of the Episcopal 
Church, to which he clung. After the death of Bishop Brooks 
and the introduction at Trinity Church of a vested choir, sit- 
ting in the chancel, he left it, and migrated to the then neg- 
lected Christ Church at the extreme North End. His bequest 
to Christ Church was to be held " only so long as the choir 
is made up of female and male singers and is located in the 
organ and choir gallery, where the same now is, and only so 
long as the Divine Presence is recognized as pervading the 
church and encompassing the worshippers; so that it is not 
necessary to turn about and look into every corner in order 
to find the Deity and to acceptably declare belief or to render 
homage, or to implore benediction. Whenever a narrower 
belief of the Divine Presence in his church is taught or is 
indicated by habitual practice (habitual as distinguished from 
some sporadic or exceptional use by a stranger), as by the 
habitual or customary turning about of the clergy in reciting 
the creed or in invoking the benediction, or whenever the 
musical service in that church shall be habitually conducted 
by a vested choir at the chancel end of the church or else- 
where therein, or whenever if at all {quod Deus avertat) the 
church edifice shall pass out of the control of the corporation 
and pew-owners, then this trust as to Christ Church shall 
cease." 

53 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Bryant was married, on October i8, 1864, to Ellen Maria 
Potter Reynolds, daughter of William B. and Elizabeth M. 
(Carter) Reynolds, but there was no issue and she died at 
Boston, July 5, 1908. 

Bryant died July 2y, 191 1. 

CHARLES CARROLL, 

First scholar and valedictorian of the Qass of 1853, was 
son of Charles Holt and Rebecca E. (White) Carroll, 
both originally of Boston but settled at Baltimore, Maryland, 
at the time of his birth, November 17, 1832. 

He attended what he called " several very indifferent 
schools" until near the close of his fifteenth year, and left 
them in a supposed state of preparation for college. But, 
being intended for business, he entered his father's counting- 
room and was fast learning the habits of an accountant and 
business man, when the removal of his family to New Eng- 
land changed all his plans. He now spent a year at the 
Cambridge High School and entered college as Freshman in 
1849. He was a hard student and in the matter of marks 
facile princeps. His tastes inclined to language and litera- 
ture. At the inauguration of President Walker, May 24, 
1853, Carroll was appointed to deliver the Latin Oration. 
The subject of his Valedictory Oration was " Mere Thinkers." 
It was a disappointment to him that, owing to his father's 
circumstances at the time, he was not able to pursue his studies 
in a foreign university immediately after graduating, though 
he admitted pleasantly that all others after Harvard would 
be but stepmothers to him. 

On leaving college he became private tutor to the sons of 
Mr. John P. Cushing at Belmont, a position which he retained 
for about a year. He then went to Europe, studied at Got- 
tingen, returned in 1856, and took up his residence in New 
York, studying law, teaching in private families, and engag- 
ing in journalism. At the end of two years he resumed 
teaching as a profession, and it became his principal occu- 
pation for the remainder of his life. 

In the summer of 1858 he taught in the High School of 

54 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Concord, Massachusetts, where he is remembered by some of 
his pupils as the best teacher they ever had. In September, 
1858, he began to teach in the English High School of Bos- 
ton as usher, a position which he held until the end of the 
school year 1863-64. He then opened a young ladies' school 
at 9 Somerset Street, Boston, which occupied him during the 
school years 1865-66 and 1866-67. Much if not the whole 
of the period between closing the school for young ladies 
and his appointment in 1871 as Professor of French and 
Grerman in the University of the City of New York was 
passed by him in Europe. He lived for some time in Berlin 
and in Florence. 

In addition to the work of his professorship Carroll did a 
good deal of writing for the press, contributing to " Harper's," 
" Scribner's '' and the " Century " magazines short stories, 
translating from the French, and acting for the last three 
years of his life as musical editor of the " New York Dra- 
matic Mirror." His work is described as discriminating, ac- 
curate, and painstaking. 

Carroll died of pneumonia on the 15th of February, 1889, 
after a few days' illness. A friendly tribute to his memory 
appeared soon after in the " Boston Post." The writer says 
his " occasional visits to this city gave pleasure to a select 
circle of friends, who appreciated his attractive personal quali- 
ties and admired his brilliant talents and acquirements. 
Though he was one of those men who do not attain the lofty 
elevation which seems foreshadowed by their rank in college 
and by their occasional flights in literature, he impressed all 
who knew him as being equal to greater honors than he 
reached. Physical drawbacks doubtless impeded his worldly 
advancement, and his highly strung intellectual organization 
was at the mercy of his susceptible nervous system. Yet he 
did useful and brilliant work in journalism and literature and, 
as Professor of French and German in the University of New 
York, he performed his duties with ability and success. A 
brilliant talker, he embodied in epigrams what most men 
would have diffused in homilies. Dying at 56, he has left 
upon the minds of those who knew him best an impression 

55 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of talents and capacities, of gifts and graces, which, under 
more favoring circumstances, would have raised him to the 
heights of intellectual and social distinction." 

Carroll received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philos- 
ophy from the University of the City of New York in June, 
1872. He was married, on April 7, 1859, to Mary Powers, 
daughter of Nathan and Mary Lincoln Caswell, deceased in 
Florence, Italy, November 26, 1877. Their children, who 
survived him, were Rosalie, born October 30, 1864, ^nd Anna 
M., born September 12, 1870. 

NATHAN HENRY CHAMBERLAIN, 

Son of Artemas White and Lydia Smith (Ellis) 
Chamberlain, was born, probably on December 28, 1828, 
in that part of the town of Sandwich which was then called 
Monument and has since been called Bourne, and he seems 
to have died in the house in v^hich he first saw the light. 
Christmas Day and December 28 are both claimed as his 
birthday, but whether 1828, '29, '30, or '31 is the natal year 
is in doubt, and the place is uncertain. At times he resided 
with his parents at Pocasset, Sandwich Village, and West 
Barnstable in succession. At the two last-named places his 
father had charge of the poorhouse. He attended the Sand- 
wich Academy and Paul Wing's school at Scorton. All his 
early life was a struggle with poverty, inspired by an intense 
desire to have a good education, and such small savings as a 
country boy could make were devoted to the purchase of 
books, which formed the foundation of a fine library, later to 
be enriched with rare editions. Partly with a view of satis- 
fying this thirst for learning, his parents removed to Cam- 
bridge, where he attended the Hopkins Classical School, and 
where his father found employment as a policeman. But 
school and college were only made possible to him by his 
own exertions, and he applied himself to any honest work 
which came to hand, whether the trimming of lawns or rabbit- 
snaring or shovelling dirt. 

He entered Harvard in 1849 ^s Freshman and, although 
obliged at times to leave college to earn needed money — 

56 



Harvard Class of 1853 



forced to teach during the day and carry along the college 
work at night — studying in bed because too poor to main- 
tain a fire — he succeeded in graduating, but without rank, 
in spite of all obstacles. In the Senior year he gained 
the Second Bowdoin Prize for an English Dissertation. 
After graduation he passed some time in the Harvard 
Divinity School, and completed his professional studies at the 
University of Heidelberg. Returning, he entered the Unitarian 
Ministry and was settled at Canton, Massachusetts, from 1857 
to 1859, and at Baltimore, Maryland, from i860 to 1863. 

Leaving the Unitarian body in 1863, he was received into 
the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and after 
taking priest's orders his terms of service were as follows : 
at Birmingham, Connecticut, 1864-67; Morrisania, New 
York, 1867-71; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1871-73; Somer- 
ville, Massachusetts, 1873-79; East Boston, Massachusetts, 
1882-89. After resigning his pastorate at East Boston he 
retired from the active exercise of his profession, but did 
occasional work while residing at Bourne on Cape Cod. 
Apart from his profession, Chamberlain was prolific in liter- 
ature, and employed his pen on a variety of subjects. Besides 
numerous occasional sermons, tracts, and pamphlets on church 
and popular subjects, he published " The Autobiography of a 
New England Farm House," 1864; "The Sphinx in Aubrey 
Parish," 1889; "What's the Matter? or Our Tariff and its 
Taxes," 1890; "Samuel Sewall and the World he lived in," 
1897. 

The following extracts are taken from obituary notices 
which appeared on Chamberlain's death: "H ever man was 
loyal to truth, as he saw it, that man was Nathan Henry 
Chamberlain. Wherever the guiding star led he was con- 
strained and content to follow. The enjoyment of assured 
success among devoted friends of a former ministry, the 
suggestions of worldly prudence, the possibility of weary 
waiting for tardy appreciation in another communion — these 
things were with him as nothing when compared to the con- 
trolling effect upon his conscience of the demands of truth." 

" Through every line of his written work shine forth a 

57 



Harvard Class of 1853 



noble soul and a brilliant intellect. Deep thinking into the 
essence of life and its problems and its lessons, high purpose 
to benefit and elevate, devotion to truth and the purest ideals 
in morals and religion — these things stand out through every 
page of the clear and incisive, graphic English of which he 
was so complete a master." 

" But world problems never obscured to him the fact that 
the part of Massachusetts to which he felt he owed peculiar 
allegiance had also its own individual history. He knew and 
had studied the history of Cape Cod, as his * Itinerary ' amply 
shows. Much laborious and independent research had enabled 
him to locate, for all time, the lost site of Judge Sewall's 
' Meeting House ' at Bournsdale — * The Trading Post at 
Manomet,' so called by the Indians. For, as a loyal son 
of Cape Cod, he knew it and loved it as he loved no other 
spot. And when, in 1889, the town of Sandwich chose him 
to be the Orator of the day at the celebration of the 250th 
anniversary of its birth, it was thought by many to be but 
a fitting recognition of the worthiness and manly achieve- 
ment of one of her sons in whom she could scarcely fail to 
feel a proud satisfaction." 

For the last few years of his life Chamberlain's health 
was seriously impaired, and his sudden death at Bourne from 
apoplexy, on April i, 1901, was not an altogether unexpected 
event. He was twice married, first, on February 19, 1855, 
to Hannah Simonds Tewkesbury, daughter of Charles S. 
and Elizabeth Anna (Richards) Tewkesbury, and by this 
marriage had two sons: Charles Frederic, born November 
30, 1855, and Henry Dudley, born May 10, 1857. He was 
married a second time, on April 6, 1869, to Mariette Cleveland 
Hyde, daughter of Simeon and Catharine (Cleveland) Hyde, 
who survived him, and by her had one daughter, Ethel Clap- 
ham, born June 29, 1871. All his children now write the 
name Chamberlayne. 

THEODORE CHASE, 

Eldest son of Theodore and Clarissa Andrews (Bige- 
Low) Chase, was born at Boston, February 4, 1832. He was 

58 



Harvard Class of 1853 



fitted for college partly at the Boston Latin School, which he 
entered in 1842, and partly under the instructions of Francis 
James Child, afterwards professor. 

Not being under the necessity of adopting a profession 
or engaging in business, he was free to consult his taste 
for travel, and spent much of his time in Europe. He was 
enthusiastically fond of music and an appreciative critic, but 
his enjoyment was much impaired by deafness. He col- 
lected a large and extremely valuable musical library. 

He married, on November 17, 1868, Alice Bowdoin, daugh- 
ter of James Bowdoin Bradlee, of Boston, but had no children. 

He died, March 18, 1894, of anaemia. 

BENJAMIN CUTLER CLARK, 

Son of Benjamin Cutler and Mary (Preston) Clark, 
was born at Boston, October 10, 1833. He was prepared for 
college at the Chauncy Hall School, in Boston, under the 
care of Messrs. Thayer and Cushing, and entered Harvard 
as Freshman in 1849. The part assigned to him at Com- 
mencement was an essay on " Hayti," a subject especially 
appropriate on account of his father's having held the con- 
sulship at Boston for that Republic for many years, and his 
consequent opportunities for information concerning it. 

In October, after graduation, he entered his father's com- 
mercial house of B. C. Clark & Company, importers of 
foreign goods, as clerk, and gradually advanced in rank, 
in the knowledge of the business, and in participation in 
the profits, until, in 1862, on his father's retiring from busi- 
ness, he came to carry it on alone without change of name 
and style. 

In 1864 he was appointed Consul for Hayti, and in the same 
year visited Europe, a visit which was repeated in 1894. 

In 1872 Clark took charge of the Pearson Cordage Com- 
pany as Treasurer, and afterwards became President also, 
making it his principal occupation, the works being on Nor- 
folk Avenue, Roxbury, and the product what is known as 
" Binder Cord," for transporting the harvests of this and 
other countries. 

59 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Clark wrote for the " Hundred Years of American Com- 
merce," published in 1895, " A History of the Cordage In- 
dustry in this Country," which was also printed separately. 
Besides this he contributed many articles of various kinds 
to the newspapers. 

Added to the labors incident to all the business and the 
care of trust estates, Clark was at times one of the Executive 
Committee of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society; a 
Director and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the 
Bostonian Society; Vice-President and President of the 
Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association; Treas- 
urer and Secretary of the Massachusetts Agricultural Club; 
Vice-President of the Boston Art Club; Trustee of the Hale 
Memorial Fund; Commodore of the Cohasset Yacht Club; 
member of the Harvard Musical Society, Harvard Club of 
New York, Merchants' Club, New England Historic-Gen- 
ealogical Society, Episcopalian Club; one of the Incorpora- 
tors and Directors of the John Howard Industrial Home; 
Treasurer of the Needlewoman's Friend Society; one of the 
Honorary Trustees of the Floating Hospital, and one of the 
Corporation of Willard Hospital. 

As the foregoing list shows, charity and philanthropy have 
occupied a large share of Clark's attention, and mindful of 
the words, " I was in prison and ye visited me," he has made 
a specialty of work for prisoners, being in the practice for 
years of visiting the Suffolk County Jail every Sunday after- 
noon and the State Prison once a month. A most notable 
instance of his desire that the most unpromising case should 
have a fair chance was the aid rendered by him in money and 
sympathy in the defence of Bram, accused and generally be- 
lieved to be guilty of a hideous murder on the high seas. 
In this case he lived to be convinced that his sympathy was 
misplaced. Another original and graceful form of benevo- 
lence practised by Clark was the making good of deficiencies 
in postage on packages mailed at Christmas time and held 
for want of stamps. A few weeks before Christmas he 
saw the postmaster, and gave orders to forward such matter 
without delay, and charge the amount of deficit to him. This 

60 



Harvard Class of 1853 



was done quietly for years before the secret came out. And, 
even then, neither sender nor recipient was the wiser! 

He spent his summers at Cohasset, and was known as an 
ardent fisherman, having secured up to a late date a record 
of 3467 tautog, and as an inveterate lover of wild-fowl shoot- 
ing having brought down in his time 4517 ducks. Add to 
this instinct for sport his fondness for sailing and for the 
management of a twenty-one-foot knockabout in the races of 
the Cohasset Yacht Club, with the occasional reward of 
" getting the gun " on crossing the line at the finish. 

No account of Clark would be complete without an ac- 
knowledgment of the lively interest he always took in his class 
and classmates. He has constantly attended their meetings 
and liberally contributed to their resources. A memorable 
dinner given by him at Taft's well-known hostelry at Point 
Shirley on October 2, 1889, in honor of President Eliot, at 
the end of his first twenty years in the Presidency, is looked 
back upon as one of the pleasantest gatherings in the history 
of the class, the house having been specially reopened on that 
occasion after its closing to the public, and a steamboat 
chartered for the day. To quote the lines addressed to him 
then by the impulsive and generous-hearted Albert G. Browne ; 

" Each comrade's sorrow ever was thy grief, 
And each one's happiness thy common joy ! " 

Clark was married, on September 29, 1859, to Adeline 
Kinnicut, daughter of Aaron Davis Weld, of West Roxbury. 
Mrs. Clark died, August 19, 1900, leaving four children: 
Benjamin Preston, born October 8, i860 (Amherst, 1881); 
Alice Harding, born November 21, 1862; Gertrude Weld, 
born January 28, 1868; and Ellery Harding, born March 13, 
1874. 

Clark died at his house, 43 Bay State Road, Boston, May 
20, 1909. For some years past his health had been failing 
and he had undergone a serious surgical operation, but though 
weak he appeared at the annual dinner in the January preced- 
ing his death, with apparent pleasure and satisfaction to 
himself. 

61 



Harvard Class of 1853 



URIEL HASKELL CROCKER, 

Eldest son of Uriel and Sarah Kidder (Haskell) 
Crocker, was born at Boston, December 24, 1832. Crocker's 
father, of the Boston Publishing House of Crocker & Brew- 
ster, was a native of Marblehead, and gave the beautiful 
marine Park surrounding Fort Sewall to that town. 

He was fitted for college at the Boston Latin School, and 
entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. He maintained a 
high rank in college, and was one of the few whose mathe- 
matical tastes led them to take the elective course under Pro- 
fessor Peirce. His part at Commencement was a " Disser- 
tation on the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." 

After graduation, he entered the Harvard Law School, and 
took his degree of LL.B. in 1855. A year was then spent 
in the office of Sidney Bartlett, Esq., in Boston, and on April 
I, 1856, Crocker was admitted to the Suffolk Bar. His 
practice was chiefly that of a conveyancer, in which his 
brother, George Glover Crocker (H. U. 1864), was asso- 
ciated with him after the latter had completed his professional 
studies. 

A rare skill in perceiving the practical bearing of a re- 
ported case, and of expressing it in condensed and accurate 
language, led him into the practice of making notes for his 
own use. The germ of his after-published work may be 
found in an abstract of cases on the subject of " Notice to 
Quit," in the " Monthly Law Reporter " of May, 1858, which 
was expanded into his book, published in 1867, entitled " Notes 
on Common Forms: A Book of Massachusetts Law." As 
indicated in the title, he made no attempt to lay down or to 
illustrate general principles or to write a treatise, but he fur- 
nished first aid for those who required an immediate answer 
to a question relating to our own domestic practice, which 
frequently proved to be all the help that was needed. Of this 
book new and enlarged editions appeared in 1872 and 1883, 
and a fourth, which was passing through the press at the 
time of his decease, in 1902. 

In 1869 he, in conjunction with his brother, published a 
book entitled " Notes on the General Statutes of Massachu- 

62 



Harvard Class of 1853 



setts," a second edition of which was printed in 1875. This 
w^ork probably led to his appointment by Governor Long, on 
April 13, 1880, as one of three commissioners to revise the 
Statutes of the Commonwealth, the others being Charles Allen 
and James M. Barker, Esquires, since then Judges of the 
Supreme Court. Simultaneously with the publication of the 
revision itself, which went into force in 1882, and is known 
as " The Public Statutes of Massachusetts," appeared a new 
edition of the notes on the statutes, now " Notes on Public 
Statutes." These useful works have become indispensable to 
every practising lawyer in the State. 

In 1877 the country was going through a long period of 
business depression, and everybody was discussing its causes. 
A favorite theory was that it had been occasioned by waste 
of capital, and that the remedy was to be found in the prac- 
tice of a general economy. This struck Mr. Crocker as a 
harmful fallacy, that is to say, when considered as advice 
given to capitalists having incomes larger than their needs. 
He became fascinated with the subject, and for the rest of 
his life he was continually turning it over in his mind and 
becoming more and more confident in the correctness of his 
own views. A thin volume, entitled " Excessive Supply a 
Cause of Commercial Distress," published in 1884, contains 
his earlier attempts to obtain notice for his views on the sub- 
ject, beginning with a letter to the " Boston Daily Advertiser " 
of August 8, 1877, and including an article which had ap- 
peared in the " Atlantic Monthly " for December, 1878, en- 
titled " Saving versus Spending — The Hard Times — Two 
Theories as to the Causes and the Remedy." Then followed 
a series of other thin volumes, beginning with " The Depres- 
sion in Trade and the Wages of Labor," published in 1886, 
with the felicitous motto from Proverbs, " There is that 
Scattereth and yet Increaseth; There is that Withholdeth 
More than is Meet, but it Tendeth to Poverty." In this 
brochure he takes the part of Labor, and suggests that a 
larger share of profits in the shape of increased wages and 
consequent purchasing power would greatly increase con- 
sumption, and set the machinery of production and consump- 

63 



Harvard Class of 1853 



tion in full swing. Next came, in 1887, "Over-production 
and Commercial Distress," in which he combats Mill's argu- 
ment to prove the impossibility of a general over-production, 
founded on the assumption that no man labors for anything 
which he does not expect to consume himself or to exchange 
for something which he expects to consume. Crocker re- 
gards this doctrine as applicable only to a simple state of 
society, and shows that modern industry is controlled by 
capitalists whose aim is the accumulation of fortunes and not 
of things they expect to consume, to whom stoppage of oper- 
ations is frequently worse than running at a loss and piling 
up unsalable goods. A pamphlet entitled " Excess of Supply, 
its Cause and its Results," was printed in January, 1890. 

Mr. Crocker contributed two other articles to the " Quarterly 
Journal of Economics" — the first in April, 1877, on "Gen- 
eral Over-Production " ; the second in 1892, on "The Over- 
production Fallacy " — and an article by him on " Diminish- 
ing Returns from Investments " appeared in the " Social 
Economist " for April, 1893. Finally, a little book, entitled 
" The Cause of Hard Times," was published in 1895, of which 
a revised edition came out in 1896. There is much repetition 
in these productions, and it was curious to see in them this 
amateur champion of a new creed running a tilt at veteran 
professors of Political Economy. He would demand, some- 
what imperatively, that they should either answer his argu- 
ments or surrender .unconditionally, and he could not under- 
stand why they did not do one or the other. In Chapter XVII 
of the book last mentioned, there is an amusing account of 
his attempt upon two Harvard professors. Finding in an 
examination paper this question, " Suppose everybody re- 
solved to consume productively only, what would be the re- 
sult?" he saw his opportunity and seized upon it eagerly, for 
never had the issue been more distinctly raised. He at once 
wrote to Cambridge asking for the correct answer. One 
gentleman replied that it was not his question, but he im- 
agined that his colleagues would hold that " the answer might 
properly depend upon the conditions of time and place." 
Thereupon a colleague was addressed without calling out a 

64< 



Harvard Class of 1853 



reply. Not wishing to seem to require too elaborate an an- 
swer, he then propounded the question, " Would the result 
be an increase of the wealth of the world?" which required 
for answer only a simple " yes " or " no," but neither came, 
and he closes with this sigh of fatigue : " When I ask the 
professors what opinions they hold on these subjects, they 
either fail to take any notice of my questions, or, like Jack 
Bunsby, they reply that the answer to the question * might 
properly depend upon the conditions of time and place.' It 
may amuse one to speculate how high a mark a student would 
have received who should have been brilliant enough to write 
down this answer to the question in his examination paper." 
After acknowledging the repudiation of his views by the pro- 
fessional economists, he says he does it only to prevent the 
latter from protesting, when the truth of his views finally 
becomes apparent to them, that they were never fools enough 
to deny such self-evident propositions, but that they had 
always maintained and asserted them. 

For the years 1874 to 1878 inclusive, Crocker was elected 
a member of the Common Council, was listened to in debate, 
and did excellent and effective work there, for which he was 
thanked on his retirement, at a dinner given in his honor by 
some of the most solid men of Boston. Being entirely in- 
dependent in the expression of his views, and having no 
political plans of his own to advance, he became a thorn in 
the side of those who had, and encountered them with as 
much pertinacity as if they had been orthodox professors of 
political economy. 

From 1869 to 1875 he was active in urging upon Boston 
the establishment of a public park. 

In the year 1875 Crocker surprised his friends and the 
public by contributing to the October number of the " Ameri- 
can Law Review," then published at Boston, an article en- 
titled " The History of a Title " — a delightful species of 
" legal fiction," as instructive as it is entertaining. He im- 
agines a title under a will, proved in 1830, to a certain piece 
of real estate in Boston, which in the year i860 is supposed 
to be unimpeachable, suddenly undermined by a claim founded 

65 



Harvard Class of 1853 



on a rule of law laid down in a certain case, for which book 
and page are given. The successful claimant, however, finds 
that he has won a castle in the air, owing to the operation 
of a rarely applicable rule of descent upon a very unusual state 
of facts (here book and page again are cited for the law), 
and so on through a series of dissolving views, each dispelled 
by some newly discovered evidence, and some case or cases 
in point, until the seventeenth century is reached, when the 
bottom drops out of everything, and the estate is found to 
be forfeited, for breach of a condition created in 1660, to 
the heirs of a man who proves to have been the ancestor of 
our owner of i860. The last-named thereupon establishes his 
descent and recovers the property. The story is told with 
a quiet grace and humor that relieve the dry, legal technicali- 
ties, and with an air of truth which deceived some simple 
souls and disturbed their rest for thinking of the instability 
of their possessions. 

When the Record Commissioners published their first edi- 
tion of the " Book of Possessions," giving certain views as to 
its date and writer, Crocker showed his critical ability in 
successfully controverting the opinion of so eminent an au- 
thority as the late William H. Whitmore. 

Besides the work before mentioned, Mr. Crocker interested 
himself in various matters of public utility; appeared before 
committees of the Legislature, and wrote an open letter to 
Mayor Matthews on what he considered the uselessness of the 
city sinking fund. 

Thoroughly upright and conscientious himself, he was very 
exacting in his demands upon others, and could make but 
little allowance for ordinary human nature. One of the last 
acts of his life was to prefer a complaint before the Bar 
Association against certain conveyancers, for what he con- 
sidered a serious offence against professional morality. It 
was a matter in which he had no personal interest whatever, 
and in which he was more likely to make enemies than friends, 
but he took much trouble about it and argued the case him- 
self, without, however, any satisfactory results. 

His health had been impaired, though not to outward ap- 

66 



Harvard Class of 1853 



pearance, for some time before his decease, which took place 
on March 7, 1902, at his residence, 247 Commonwealth Ave- 
nue, Boston, and his last illness was short. 

Mr. Crocker was twice married — first on January 15, 1861, 
to Clara Garland Ballard, daughter of Joseph and Clarissa 
(Leavitt) Ballard, who died on May 14, 1891, and by whom 
he had issue, George Uriel (H. U. 1884), born January 9, 
1863; Joseph Ballard, born July 8, 1867; Edgar (H. U. 
1897), born October 22, 1874: secondly, on April 29, 1893, 
to Annie J. Fitz (originally Fitzpatrick), daughter of Wil- 
liam Henry and Elizabeth Jane (Baxter) Fitzpatrick, of 
Charlestown, Massachusetts. 

In addition to the public employments before mentioned, 
Mr, Crocker was a Commissioner on the Revision of the 
Ordinances of the City of Boston, in 1882; a member of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, the Bunker Hill Monument 
Association, the Massachusetts Charitable Society, the Mas- 
sachusetts Charitable Fire Society, " A Republican Institu- 
tion," and of the Union, St. Botolph, Country, New Riding, 
and Unitarian clubs in Boston. He served as Clerk, Treasurer, 
and Director of the South Cove Corporation; Director and 
President of the United States Hotel Company; Clerk, Treas- 
urer, Director, and President of the " Proprietors of the 
Revere House "; Director of the Northern (New Hampshire) 
Railroad ; Chairman of the Standing Committee of the West 
Church (Boston) ; Treasurer of the Boston Civil Service 
Reform Association; member of the General Committee of 
the Citizens' Association of Boston ; President of the Boston 
Lying-in Hospital, and member of the Board of Managers 
of the Home for Aged Women. 

WILLIAM HENRY CUNNINGHAM, 

Son of Charles and Roxalina (Dabney) Cunningham, 
was born at Boston, on January 18, 1832. 

He went through the regular five-year course at the Boston 
Latin School, and entered Harvard in 1849 ^s Freshman. He 
was one of the crew of the " Oneida " in the race with Yale 
on August 3, 1852. 

67 



Harvard Class of 1853 



After graduation he went to Fayal in the bark " lo " on a 
visit to his uncle, Charles W. Dabney, who was then and for 
many years afterwards Consul of the United States for the 
Western Islands. (Another uncle, Horace Cunningham, 
H. U. '46, organized in 1845, amongst the men of his class, 
the first boat's crew at Harvard, and procured for its use the 
"Oneida," which won the race of 1852.) On his return 
from Fayal Cunningham undertook, 1854-55, a business 
voyage to San Francisco, on the brig " Lotus," belonging to 
Messrs. Dabney & Cunningham, merchants, of Boston, and 
thence to Hong Kong, Foo Chow, and Batavia. Leaving 
the ship in the East, he returned to America by way of 
Europe, and went into business as a Boston merchant, in 
which occupation, however, he continued but for a short time. 
After his return from China he was always an invalid, and 
continued to live with his parents at 48 Mt. Vernon Street, 
where he died, unmarried, September 20, 1867. 

ELBRIDGE JEFFERSON CUTLER, 

Son of Elihu Cutler, Jr., and Rebecca Temple Cutler, 
was born at Holliston, Massachusetts, on December 28, 

1831. 

He was fitted for college at Westboro by the Rev. T. D. P. 
Stone, and entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. He main- 
tained a high rank in his class, and his poetical talent was so 
marked that no one else was thought of as Class Day Poet, 
and Cutler was elected by acclamation. At Commencement 
his part was an English poem entitled " A Corn Song." 

After graduating, Cutler for a few months served as assist- 
ant to his former teacher, Mr. Stone, who was then at the 
head of a boarding-school in Norwich, Connecticut. In the 
spring of 1854 he returned to his native place and opened a 
private school which he kept for about two years. In 1856 
he took up his residence in the city of New York and had 
an appointment on the editorial staff of the " Evening Post." 
He afterwards spent several months as a teacher in the school 
of Mr. Theodore D. Weld, at Eagleswood, New Jersey. Re- 
turning to New York, he resided from the autumn of 1857 

68 



Harvard Class of 1853 



to the spring of 1858 in the family of the Rev. Dr. Bellows, 
whose son, then preparing for college, was his pupil. He 
subsequently renewed his engagement at Eagleswood, remain- 
ing there for more than a year. In June, 1859, he visited 
Europe and spent about a year in travel and study, devoting 
much attention to the French and German languages. 

In 1861, inspired with zeal for the Union cause and a sense 
of duty, but without special taste or qualification for a mili- 
tary career, he busied himself in raising and equipping a 
company, mostly drawn from Holliston, expending on it almost 
all that he possessed. But an accident, the effects of which 
he was to feel for the remainder of his life, changed all his 
plans. In aiding a passing traveller whose wagon was over- 
turned near his mother's house, he received a severe spinal 
injury, causing weeks of suffering and helplessness. He was 
so far convalescent as to be able to comply with the invitation 
of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College to officiate 
as Poet of the Day on the i8th of July, 1861. The poem which 
he then read, entitled " Liberty and Law," was Cutler's most 
conspicuous and most widely celebrated literary performance. 
"Both the oration" (by ex-Governor Boutwell), said the 
" Daily Advertiser " next day, " and poem were heard with 
rapt attention by the cultivated audience. Seldom, if ever, 
has so rare a treat been laid before the Society as on this 
occasion, as the frequent bursts of applause and the prevalent 
emotion at some passages of the poem abundantly testified." 
" It was," says Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, " from the beginning 
to the end throbbing and glowing with patriotic feeling, ear- 
nest, tense, noble, grand. Its effect was no doubt enhanced 
by his presence. Still feeble from his late illness, pale, at- 
tenuated, and with a face never more expressive, animated, 
and spiritual, with a voice slender and threadlike, yet pene- 
trating and flowing, he threw his w^hole soul into the utter- 
ance." The poem was printed in the series of war tracts issued 
by the American Unitarian Association and circulated among 
the Union soldiers. It was adopted by the Confederates, with 
alterations suited to their purposes, and taken notice of in 
England as an exhibition of the Southern spirit. In his col- 

69 



Harvard Class of 1853 



lected war poems, 1867, it appears with considerable altera- 
tion under the title of " Reveille." 

In 1862 Cutler opened a classical school at Worcester, where 
he remained for two years with the most gratifying success. 
At the close of his second year at Worcester he again em- 
barked for Europe and there devoted another year to study 
and travel. During his absence he was appointed Assistant 
Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard. He entered 
upon the duties of that office in September, 1865. Partly 
owing to his attachment to his own University and partly 
owing to his ill health, he did not avail himself of oppor- 
tunities for more conspicuous service elsewhere which at this 
time were offered, the Chancellorship of Washington Uni- 
versity at St. Louis being one. 

To the Harvard Memorial Biographies, published in 1866, 
Cutler contributed the life of Fitzhugh Birney. 

In 1868 there appeared a short story in verse by him, 
entitled " Stella," the story of a maiden who died of grief 
for love unrequited, very gracefully told. 

As a teacher and professor, Cutler seems to have been 
eminently successful. To quote Dr. Peabody again, " He 
made learning attractive, both by his own example of the 
amenities and graces which belong to liberal culture, and by 
a very keen appreciation of truth and beauty in thought, 
style, and expression, which won from his pupils their ad- 
miration for the literature which he opened to their knowl- 
edge. He understood, too, the modes of access to minds of 
various complexions, and was often instrumental in awaken- 
ing capacities, tastes, and susceptibilities which would have 
responded to no less sympathetic touch. . . . No one has borne 
a more important or influential part than he in the entire 
change of the old relations between teachers and students in 
college, in replacing the former distance and reserve, sometimes 
approaching hostility, by mutual confidence and friendship." 

The following is taken from an appreciative letter from Dr. 
Henry W. Bellows to Dr. Peabody, dated December 2^, 1871 : 

"Mr. Cutler at the period I refer to [1857] was not a 
young man easy to understand. He had a shy and reserved 

70 



Harvard Class of 1853 



nature, a great natural pride, wholly without vanity or parade, 
a habit of talking around subjects with the aim to draw out 
others' opinions rather than to express his own, a certain 
love of dialectic finesse, and a disposition to take the un- 
popular and unusual side of every question. He was specially 
interested in religious questions, but seemed wholly unsettled 
upon them, and presented the aspect of a puzzled enquirer 
afraid of being committed in advance of independent con- 
sideration to any positive view. . . . My conviction was that 
nothing lay deeper at his heart than these topics, and that 
his sensitive and earnest mind concealed, under badinages 
and flighty references, a serious anxiety to lay hold on objects 
of faith with his own hands, and not to mistake others' 
faiths for his own or be beguiled by acquiescence or au- 
thority into what he craved eagerly to make wholly his, by 
personal conviction and intellectual and spiritual appropria- 
tion. . . . His atmosphere was pure and brainy, and it 
seemed impossible to associate anything low or unworthy 
with him. His health was never firm when I knew him. 
Temperate, nay, almost ascetic in his habits, he was as frugal 
and simple in his personal tastes and appetites as he was 
dainty and fastidious in his intellectual feelings and pro- 
ductions. He had little of the American passion for quantity, 
and an immense preference for quality. 

" Mr. Cutler was eminently conscientious in the per- 
formance of his duty as a teacher; exact, solid, and helpful. 
He won the love of my children and their full respect as a 
man and a teacher. 

" Of so delicate, lonely, and peculiar a person as Mr. 
Cutler, it is wholly impossible to give a portrait except by a 
thousand hints. He can be suggested but not outlined." 

Cutler died in his room in Holworthy, December 27, 1870, 
and a funeral service was held at President Eliot's house. 
He was never married. 

GEORGE OSGOOD DALTON, 

Only son of Tristram and Hannah R. (Beers) Dalton, 
was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, January 10, 1832. The 

71 



Harvard Class of 1853 



father's name Tristram Dalton is so unusual a combination 
that it suggests a possible descent from the very eminent 
merchant of Newbury who bore that name and who became 
one of the first two United States Senators representing 
Massachusetts on the organization of the Federal govern- 
ment. He was a social leader in his time, and rode with his 
barouche-and-four attended by liveried footmen, but lived 
to see his fortune waste away. He was of the Harvard 
Class of 1755, and died in 181 7, leaving an only son, Tris- 
tram Dalton by name. 

Dalton was educated in the public schools of Woburn. 
In September, 1847, he began to prepare for college at the 
Warren Academy, Woburn, then under the tuition of Abner 
Price, a graduate of Yale, and was admitted at Harvard in 
1849 ^s Freshman. In the year 1851 he was absent from 
college nearly six months on account of sickness. On grad- 
uating in 1853 he began the study of medicine in the Harvard 
Medical School and continued it at the Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelphia, where he took his degree of M.D. 
in the spring of 1855. He then began practice at Summit 
Hill, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. But he did not remain 
there long, and in 1856-57 was engaged in teaching at the 
Temple Grove Seminary, Saratoga; afterwards as principal 
in a school at Andover, New Hampshire; then taught in the 
New England Christian Institute at Oxford, and in other 
places in New Hampshire, and took a boys' boarding-school 
in Stamford, Connecticut. 

During the Civil War Dalton was drafted for military 
duty, not being then exempt as a practising physician, but 
on being examined was rejected as not able-bodied. After- 
wards he applied for and received a commission as Assistant 
Surgeon in the same regiment for which he had been drafted, 
the 23d Connecticut, which went out to Louisiana, December 
13, 1862, under General Banks. He returned with the regi- 
ment, which was mustered out at New Haven, September i, 
1863, after having been engaged at La Fourche Crossing 
June 20-21, 1863, Brashear City June 2^, 1863, and Bayou 
Bceuf June 23, 1863. A member of the regiment describes 

72 



Harvard Class of 1853 



him as a kind, genial, and efficient officer. Later, he went 
back as Acting Assistant Surgeon in the Corps d'Afrique 
of the United States. 

At this time he had a very extensive practice in the 
United States General Hospital at New Orleans, having 
under his care some three thousand cases of smallpox alone, 
and exhibiting great courage in freely going to and engaging 
in professional duties which had cost several surgeons their 
lives. He was in the New Orleans Hospital about three years. 
When the War closed, he again came home, but soon after 
went into the service of the Freedmen's Bureau at Georgia 
Station, No. ii. Central Railroad, as Contract Surgeon under 
Medical Director Dr. Dellarme, U. S. A. This position he 
relinquished because of its isolation and dangers, murders 
being frequent while he was there. Returning to his native 
town, he endeavored to establish himself in private practice. 
He did not meet with encouragement and became thoroughly 
disheartened by his want of success. He received an offer to 
return to the Freedmen's Bureau, accepted it at once, and 
went to Albany, Georgia, where under the same Director he 
remained until the Bureau was broken up. His subsequent 
history was one of attempts to find something to do and of 
repeated failures. A new and promising business in the city 
was believed to be secured for him under the assurance that 
a lease could be had for a term of years if desired. After the 
transfer was made it was found that the building in which the 
business was carried on was to be torn down in a month. 
This proved to be the final blow to all his prospects, and in 
despair he ended his life by an over-dose of morphine, Feb- 
ruary 12, 1870. 

Dalton was of a gentle nature and not well fitted to fight 
the world's rude battles. He always remembered a kindness, 
had a love of truth, and a regard for the dignity of his pro- 
fession. Only a day or two before his untimely end he refused 
an offer to engage in the practice of medicine with an irregu- 
lar practitioner, saying, " I cannot dishonor my professional 
standing." 

Dr. Dalton was married to Louisa M., daughter of Syl- 

73 



Harvard Class of 1853 



vester G. and Eunice Dewey, and left one son, George Willie, 
born July 9, 1867. His widow died December 24, 1878. 

JOHN DAVES 

Was the eldest son of John Pugh and Elizabeth 
(Graham) Daves, and was born at New Berne, North Caro- 
lina, December 24, 1831. His father was a son of John Daves, 
a Major in the Revolutionary War, and grandson of John 
Daves who came from Wales. His mother was a third wife, 
and was the daughter of Edward Graham, a lawyer, whose 
father came from Scotland. 

Daves studied at the Academy at New Berne until he went, 
at about fifteen years of age, to Scuppernong, North Carolina, 
where he spent a year in the family of his cousin, Josiah Col- 
lins, under the charge of a private tutor. In 1848 he entered 
the Freshman class at St. James College, Maryland, and there 
he remained one year. In 1849 he entered the Freshman class 
at Harvard College. He left college on account of ill health 
at the end of the first term Junior, and returned at the end of 
the second, to pass the examinations with his classmates, but 
was unable to join the class afterwards except at Commence- 
ment, when he received his degree notwithstanding his absence, 
and united with the class in their parting ceremonies. 

Daves was an excellent specimen of the well-bred Southerner 
of good family, " He was full of Southern fire, but evidently 
uneasy under Massachusetts skies." He was not intimately 
known by many of his classmates, but was loved and at his 
early death sincerely mourned by the circle of his immediate 
friends, one of whom, of the Class of 1852, wrote: " Uniting 
to perfect rectitude both warmth and refined elegance of man- 
ner, and displaying at the same time in social intercourse un- 
usual brilliancy of thought and language, he could not but 
win the unfeigned admiration of all casual acquaintances. 
His friends will probably see in the two words ' Christian 
gentleman ' the truest description of their deeply regretted 
friend." As a staunch and scrupulous Episcopalian, Daves 
was one of the few students who, by permission, attended 
morning and evening prayers at the house of Dr. Nicholas 

74 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Hoppin, Rector of Christ Church, in place of the regular 
Chapel services. He was a genial companion, handsome and 
engaging in his person, and his singing of some of the old 
English ballads was an experience that lingered in the memory. 
After graduation, Daves studied law privately at Scupper- 
nong for one year, and then was obliged to abandon it on 
account of the failure of his health. From that time he con- 
tinued to fail until he died, unmarried, of consumption, at 
Beaufort, South Carolina, in his twenty-fourth year, October 
I, 1855. 

WILLIAM SIDNEY DAVIS, 

Second son of William E. and Almira L. (Sherman) 
Davis^ was born at Northborough, Massachusetts, on Febru- 
ary II, 1832. By the death of his father on Christmas Day, 
1836, he was left to the care of a fond mother who had a high 
estimate of his abilities, and it was early determined that he 
should be sent to college, and, to use his own words, " various 
and miserable were the places of instruction to which he was 
sent to prepare himself." In the summer of 1845 his mother 
married Mr. Israel C. Rice, of Boston. He then entered the 
Boston Latin School, and in 1849 was admitted at Harvard 
as Freshman. His Commencement part was an English 
poem, " Joan of Arc." 

Davis wrote, for the Harvard Memorial Biographies, the 
life of Samuel Foster Haven. 

He studied law at Worcester in the office of G. C. B. Davis 
and Elijah B. Stoddard, from November, 1853, to March, 
1855. For the latter portion of this time, from March, 1854, 
till March, 1855, he was also a student in the Harvard Law 
School. He resumed his studies in the Worcester office of 
George F. Hoar, and was admitted to the Bar at Worcester, 
September 11, 1855, where he began practice. 

In the course of a few years he found himself connected 
with important interests which rendered a longer continu- 
ance in practice at the Bar undesirable. He was Secretary, and 
afterwards President, of the Bay State Fire Insurance Com- 
pany of Worcester, which came to an end in consequence of 

75 



Harvard Class of 1853 



losses sustained in the great Boston fire of 1872. His recog- 
nized abilities were such, however, that he was not allowed to 
remain unemployed. He was at once appointed Receiver of 
the Bay State Company, and, before that duty was fully dis- 
charged, was called to the service of the National Board of 
Underwriters in a very influential capacity. While in that 
service, he was offered and accepted the position of Vice- 
President of the Insurance Company of North America, one 
of the oldest and largest corporations of its kind in the 
country, and then went to reside at Philadelphia. Of this 
company he was a trusted and honored officer, employed in its 
most important negotiations and maintaining a very extensive 
correspondence with all its representatives throughout the 
country. When in 1875 his health began to fail, a long vaca- 
tion was granted him by the directors without abatement of 
salary. He passed the winter of 1875-76 in travelling through 
England, France, and Italy, and returned much benefited in 
the spring of 1876. His health, however, was never fully re- 
stored, and for the rest of his life the steady, slow decline 
went on. In the year 1880 his health gave way entirely, he 
gave up business and went to live at Westport, on Lake Cham- 
plain. Here he remained until 1885, when he returned to 
Worcester, and died there March 8, 1886. During the entire 
period of his last illness the Insurance Company of North 
America paid him a handsome yearly allowance, the highest 
tribute to his character, ability, and fidelity from those in 
the best position to know and appreciate them. 

His general scholarship and fine declamation and his per- 
sonal popularity, which had made him conspicuous at the 
Latin School, still gave him the hold on his Harvard Class 
which engaging manners and a frank nature do not fail to 
insure. He took, in the Senior year, the First Boylston Prize 
in Declamation, and when the assignment of the Class Day 
Honors came to be made, while there was but one possible 
Poet, the choice of Orator was contested by Davis. He was, 
for a time, with a group of Harvard men in Washington at 
the outbreak of the War, and there joined with A. S. Hill, 
Washburn, George Bliss, and William Emerson of the Law 

76 



Harvard Class of 1853 



School, in contributing articles to the daily press and to 
Appleton's Cyclopaedia, then in process of issue. Doubtless 
his desertion of law practice, where his oratorical faculty would 
have served him well, for insurance, which, like diplomacy, 
is a silent craft, was influenced to some extent by the fact that 
his wife's father was, at that day, one of the great insurance 
magnates of New England. 

Davis married, on January i, 1862, Anna M., daughter of 
George W. and Lucy Davis (White) Richardson. One 
daughter, Lucy, married first to Wm. Hobbs Manning (H. U. 
1882) and secondly to J. H. Dearbergh of Florence, Italy, 
was born of this marriage. Both wife and daughter survived 
him. 

MOSES HENRY DAY, 

Son of Moses and Sarah G. (Sessions) Day, was born 
at Roxbury, Massachusetts, July 9, 1832. 

He was prepared for college at the Roxbury Latin School, 
and entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. His college 
course was interrupted by an absence of twelve weeks in the 
second term Sophomore owing to illness (a part of the 
time being spent in farming at Oakham) and another of six 
weeks in the first term Junior, when he was keeping school 
at Taunton. 

Immediately after graduation he became identified with the 
large cordage manufactory with which his father was long 
connected as a partner, and when, in 1880, a company was 
organized to carry on the business under the name of the 
Sewall and Day Cordage Company, he became its President 
and held the office until his death. 

He was elected a director in the People's Bank on October 
27, 1862, and when, in 1864, that institution was merged 
in the People's National Bank of Roxbury, he was continued 
as Director and held the office until 1881. He was President 
of the Institution for Savings in Roxbury from December 
19, 1877, to December 15, 1880, and for one year thereafter 
was a Trustee. He was an active member of the Highland 
Congregational Church, in the work of which he took a great 

77 



Harvard Class of 1853 



interest. He was a valued officer in the City Government 
of Roxbury. As an employer he was considerate of those 
working for him and was a great favorite among them. His 
generous nature manifested itself in many acts of unosten- 
tatious benevolence, and created many kindly memories in 
the large circle in which he moved. 

He died of Bright's disease, on January 17, 1882, after a 
long illness. 

He was married, on November 29, 1855, to Sarah Frances 
Brown, daughter of Nathan and Ann Haggett Brown. His 
widow and seven children survived him, their names and 
dates of birth being as follows : Sarah Louise, September 9, 
1857; Moses Henry, March 18, i860; Annie Frances, Novem- 
ber 22, 1 861; Carrie Elisabeth, April 8, 1865; Chester Ses- 
sion§, January 15, 1867; Sarah Grosvenor, September 30, 
1868; Nathan Brown, August 29, 1870. 

WILLIAM EDWARD DORSHEIMER, 

Who seems to have dropped his middle name later, was 
born at Lyons, New York, February 5, 1832. His father was 
Philip Dorsheimer, German born ; once, under a Democratic 
regime, Postmaster of Buffalo; later a prominent and early 
Republican politician, in i860 elected Treasurer of the State. 
In New York Democrats with antislavery leanings were called 
" barn-burners." They were taxed by their opponents with 
being ready to destroy the fabric of the Union, if only they 
might be rid of slavery. This, it was held, was as great a 
folly as burning the barn to get the rats out. The " barn- 
burner '^ movement culminated in 1848, when Martin Van 
Buren of New York, a former Democratic President and pro- 
tege of Jackson, was nominated for reelection to the Presi- 
dency on an antislavery platform. 

In 1849 young Dorsheimer joined the Freshman class at 
Harvard, coming from Phillips Andover Academy, and, while 
his college course continued but a year, made himself so well 
known in the years immediately after that, before the War, 
as early as 1859, the University recognized him with its hon- 
orary degree of A.M. He studied law in Buffalo and had been 

78 



Harvard Class of 1853 



admitted to the New York Bar in 1854. He took an active 
part in the State Campaign of 1854, supporting Seymour for 
Governor and making his first poHtical address. He next 
joined the RepubHcan movement and supported Fremont 
warmly in 1856. In 1858 he printed two striking reviews in 
the " Atlantic Monthly " magazine, criticising Parton's lives 
of Jefferson and of Aaron Burr. His Harvard degree followed 
the next year. In i860 he voted for Lincoln and labored for 
his success. 

In 1 86 1 he joined the staff of Fremont with the rank of 
Major, and contributed, soon after, to the " Atlantic Monthly " 
three spirited articles describing experiences of the " Hundred 
Days' Campaign in Missouri," in which he bore a part. He 
was well fitted to adorn a military group of which Gryerson 
has said : " Fremont had surrounded himself like a great 
potentate with satellites and guards, and had a more showy 
court than any real king." In these papers Dorsheimer 
championed both the military and the political course of his 
Chief, who was then aspiring to be a Liberator, as well as 
a Path-finder. 

Johnson appointed him, in 1867, United States District 
Attorney for the Northern District of New York. In 1872 
he supported the anti-Grant movement, and was a delegate 
in the Convention which nominated Greeley, and on his re- 
turn to Buffalo made the first ratification speech uttered in 
support of his candidate. In 1874 he was elected, running 
ahead of his ticket, and, until 1880, reelected, as a Democrat, 
Lieutenant-Governor of New York, bearing a full share in 
the Tilden Reform Administration. As Lieutenant-Governor, 
he was, ex-officio, President of the Senate, Commissioner of 
the Land Ofifice and of the Canal Fund, and a Regent of the 
University. During these five years three of the State 
Senates over which he was called to preside were not politi- 
cally in touch with him. Soon after the beginning of his 
first term as Lieutenant-Governor, he became an ardent sup- 
porter of Governor Tilden, particularly in the latter's war- 
fare upon the Canal Ring. In 1876 he was a Delegate, as the 
friend of Tilden, to the St. Louis Democratic Convention, and 

79 



Harvard Class of 1853 



mad.e a brave stand against fiat money. He was, this year, 
strongly supported for Governor of New York. He was a 
leading advocate of Governor Tilden's nomination for the 
Presidency and was a prominent member of the Committee 
on Resolutions, says the " Buffalo Courier " of March 28, 
1888, in announcing his death, " rapidly acquiring a National 
reputation. He reported the platform to the Convention and 
earnestly defended its declaration in favor of honest money. 
In the memorable campaign of that year, Mr. Dorsheimer took 
a conspicuous and honorable part." During his second term 
as Lieutenant-Governor he became estranged from Tilden, re- 
moved to New York and joined Tammany Hall. In 1880 
Mr. Dorsheimer took part in the campaign for Hancock. In 
1882 he was chosen to Congress from one of the New York 
City Districts, and assigned to the Judiciary Committee, and 
he was made Chairman of a Committee charged with com- 
pleting the Washington Monument. He became Chairman of 
the State Commission on the Niagara Reservation. In 1884 
he produced a Campaign Biography of Grover Cleveland. The 
next year he was appointed United States District Attorney 
for the Southern District of New York — a position which he 
resigned in 1886 to become the proprietor and editor of the 
" Star " newspaper, an influential supporter of the Cleveland 
administration. To have filled the responsible post of United 
States Attorney for the Buffalo District of New York so ac- 
ceptably as to be named by President Cleveland for United 
States Attorney for the Metropolitan District of New York 
is evidence that his brilliant parts were no vox et prccterea 
nihil. " Mr. Dorsheimer," says the " Courier," " will be re- 
membered as one of the ablest, best equipped, and most elo- 
quent public men of the period during which he was conspicu- 
ously connected with our political affairs. During the many 
years of his residence in this city he was actively interested 
in important public undertakings. He took a prominent part 
in the movement that led to the establishment of the Buffalo 
Park, and he was one of the founders of the Buffalo Histori- 
cal Society and of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy." He had 
travelled widely at home and abroad. He died, March 26, 

60 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1888, while visiting Savannah, Georgia, and his death was 
noticed with marked honors by the Bar of Erie County and 
by the city of Buffalo. 

Dorsheimer was equipped with all the showy qualities which 
make a public career easy of achievement. He seemed to 
model himself on " Prince John " Van Buren. His stature 
was worthy of a drum-major, added to which an easy and 
exhaustless flow of speech and a capacity for elegant and 
effective off-hand public address, made him welcome in Fan- 
euil Hall, and later in the stormy gatherings of New York 
City. There was a quality about his performances which 
was entirely unique. His delivery was fine, and he did not 
stint himself in the matter of preparation, though he spent 
little time over text-books. His masterly exposition in one 
of the clubs of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's arraignment of 
Warren Hastings no student who was privileged to listen 
to it ever could forget. Even in the recitation rooms at 
Harvard his powers of expression never played him false. He 
often said that it was foolish for the student to admit, when 
called upon to recite, that he was unprepared with anything 
to say. The true course was to rise with confidence and, 
evading the question which would have betrayed his ignorance, 
proceed to talk upon some other topic where he felt at ease. 
He declared that he could make a stump-speech which would 
serve his purpose in any course but mathematics. In Peirce's 
class-room he was silent. He was as mature in looks when he 
came to Cambridge at the age of seventeen — wearing a heavy 
beard, and addressing the college clubs in a sonorous and effec- 
tive bass voice and very ably — as is the average man of forty. 
In youth his figure was a model, and his presence altogether 
dignified and manly. 

ATWOOD HARLOW DREW, 

Eldest son of Atwood Louis and Jane (Harlow) Drew, 
was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on September 5, 1833. 
He received his early education and his preparation for col- 
lege in his native town; entered college as Freshman in 1849 
and graduated regularly in 1853. He was employed in mer- 

81 



Harvard Class of 1853 



cantile business and died at Boston of consumption on March 
29, 1889. He was never married. 

ORMOND HORACE BUTTON, 

Son of Ormond and Mary (Dorr) Dutton, was born, 
May 24, 1829, at Windsor, Vermont, where his father then 
lived. His mother was the daughter of Captain Joseph Dorr, 
of Keene, New Hampshire. 

The family having subsequently moved to Boston, he en- 
tered the Boston Latin School in 1845, ^""^ joined the class 
which had entered in the previous year. He did not go im- 
mediately from school to college, but continued his studies 
under the private instruction of Mr. William P. Atkinson, 
and entered Harvard as Sophomore in 1850. On leaving 
college in 1853 he began the study of the law, which he 
pursued partly in the Boston office of William Brigham, Esq., 
and partly at the Harvard Law School, where he was a 
student in the years 1854 and 1855. He was admitted to the 
Bar July 7, 1856. In 1857 he went abroad for a year of 
travel, but the financial troubles of the time affected his 
father's business, and the necessity of retrenchment hastened 
his return. Never having had much taste for the law, he now 
turned to journalism, and in 1858 became associated with 
Mr. George S. Hillard in the editorship of the " Boston 
Courier." This position he left in the autumn of i860 to 
accept one in the office of the " New York Tribune," and the 
latter he held until the time of Mr. Charles A. Dana's separa- 
tion from that paper. Being one of his corps, he went out 
with him. During the latter part of his connection with the 
" Tribune " he acted as its Washington correspondent, and 
the very severe work which was required of him at this ex- 
acting period, when war was breaking out, bore so heavily 
upon him that his health never fully recovered from the 
strain. 

Circumstances having turned his attention to the ministry 
of the Episcopal Church, he was confirmed in 1861, and 
immediately began his theological studies under Drs. Muhlen- 
burg and Cruse. In the interval between leaving the " Trib- 

82 



Harvard Class of 1853 



une " office and entering upon the work of the ministry, he 
was for a time in the office of the " Evening Post " and also 
in that of the " Journal of Commerce." In addition, he edited 
Captain Hall's " Life among the Esquimaux," and contrib- 
uted to Appleton's Cyclopedia. He was ordained Deacon in 
New York on December 20, 1863, and, from his ordination 
to May 15, 1864, acted as Assistant at St. Peter's, Brooklyn. 
In October following he received a call to become Rector of 
St. Paul's, Holyoke, Massachusetts, and was ordained Priest, 
in St. Thomas's Church, Ravenswood, Long Island, on No- 
vember 13, 1864. After a year's service at Holyoke he re- 
signed his Rectorship and was re-transferred to the diocese 
of New York, where, on April i, 1866, he became Assistant 
at the Church of the Holy Communion, New York City.' In 
1867 he went to Trinity Church to take Dr. Ogilby's place 
during his absence. He was elected permanent Assistant of 
Trinity Parish on May i, 1867, as successor for life to Dr. 
Neely, appointed Bishop of Maine. A few months of vigorous 
work, of increased physical strength, and of bright hope were 
brought to a close by a sudden and violent attack of bron- 
chitis, which terminated in a rapid consumption. He was 
hurried abroad with a view of reaching Egypt, but continu- 
ing to fail he went no further than Hyeres in the South of 
France, where he died on March 15, 1868. 

He married, on May 13, 1863, a widow, Mrs. Alice E. 
Boteler, but there were no children from this union. 

Resolutions passed at a meeting of the Clergy of Trinity 
Church, on occasion of receiving the intelligence of the death 
of their colleague, bore testimony, not only to their respect 
and esteem for him as a man, a Christian, and a pastor, but 
also to his sincerity, his courtesy, his intense interest in his 
ministerial work, his unsparing devotion of himself to its 
requirements, his deep religious character. 

GEORGE RUSSELL DWELLEY, 

Eldest son of Lemuel and Sarah Jacobs (Bailey) 
DwELLEY, was born at Hanover, Massachusetts, December 
5, 1830. On his mother's side he was descended from Elder 

83 



Harvard Class of 185S 



Brewster of Plymouth, and from John Bailey, Colonel of 
the 2d Massachusetts Regiment in the Continental Army, and 
from John Jacobs, also a Colonel in the Revolution. On his 
father's side he had an ancestor, Richard Dwelley, a soldier 
in King Philip's War, who received a grant of land in Han- 
over, and he had also a great-grandfather, Joshua Dwelley, 
who served as Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. 

His early education was received in his native town, in 
the schools and the Academy, the latter then under the charge 
of Cyrus Holmes, an alumnus of Dartmouth, and it was sup- 
plemented also by two years of private instruction from that 
teacher. At sixteen he left home for Phillips Academy, 
Andover, where he studied for a year and a half under 
Messrs. Aiken and Taylor. 

He entered Yale University as Freshman in 1849. His 
college course was somewhat checkered. A prize for Latin 
Composition, and the award of a part at the Junior Exhibi- 
tion, were evidence of scholarship; his election to be Poet 
at the Sophomore Festivity, and by the Literary Society, 
and the general expectation that he would be Class Poet at 
Class Day, testify to the consideration in which he was held 
by his classmates; but his conduct did not in all respects 
meet with the approval of the Faculty, and the result was his 
migration from Yale to Harvard, where he joined the Senior 
class in September, 1852. Li the winter of that year Rantoul 
and he both taught district schools in Pembroke, the town 
adjoining Hanover. 

Immediately after graduation he availed himself of an 
opportunity to teach, and became Head Master of a boys' 
boarding-school at Pembroke, Massachusetts, expecting to 
continue in that occupation but a year or two, when, finding 
that he was successful and enjoyed the work, he made it his 
profession. He gave up the Pembroke school early in 1855, 
and was elected Town Clerk, Treasurer, and School Com- 
mitteeman in his native town of Hanover, where he had 
maintained a residence. At the same time he taught there 
in a school where high-school branches were taught. The 
official work interfering with that of the school, he dropped 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the former at the end of the first year, resuming after a 
year's interval a place on the School Committee and holding 
it for a year. In 1858 he became Principal of the High 
School at East Abington, Massachusetts, since Rockland, and 
continued there till 1862, when he accepted a similar position 
at Watertown, Massachusetts. This he held for the next 
four years. 

He left Watertown in May, 1866, to recover from the 
effect of over-work, and went in search of health to Eagle 
Harbor in Northern Michigan, where he took a business 
position as cashier in the employ of the Copper Falls Mining 
Company of Keweenaw County. While there he was elected 
Township Clerk, and held the office of County Superintendent 
of Schools for two years, from 1869 to 1871. Going into 
local politics, for the sake of effecting certain economical 
reforms in the public service, he brought about a reduction 
of the tax on the corporation he served from $2800 to $1100 
and on individual taxes in proportion. Health being restored, 
he accepted an invitation to resume his position of Principal 
of the High School at Watertown, which he did in September, 
1871 — a position which he resigned in 1874 to take up the 
receivership of the Mechanics' Savings Bank of Boston, then 
in liquidation. In 1877, concurrently with the work of the 
receivership, he assumed the duty of Principal of the High 
School of Lexington, Massachusetts. In 1881, at the close 
of these functions, he was again invited to teach at Water- 
town. During the second year of his third engagement at 
Watertown, the school authorities of Woburn, Fitchburg, and 
Lynn respectively sought to secure his services for their High 
Schools. Those of Watertown at the end of this second year, 
in 1883, in order to retain him, made him both Principal of the 
High School and Superintendent of the other schools. This 
office of Superintendent he held for fourteen years and, dur- 
ing a part of the time, that of Principal of the High School 
also. In one year, while he was Superintendent at Water- 
town, he was also Superintendent at Groton. In 1896 the 
Watertown School Committee separated the offices of Super- 
intendent and Principal, and gave him the choice between 

85 



Harvard Class of 1853 



them. He chose that of Superintendent, as that of Groton 
was at his command, through the recommendation of the 
Massachusetts Board of Education, and from September, 1896, 
to September, 1897, he was at Watertown three days in the 
week and at Groton two days. In the latter year he suffered 
severely from disease of the heart, and was liable to become 
unconscious in any place. The last time he was attacked was 
at a teachers' meeting at Watertown, and he abandoned all 
work at the close of this official year. With the rest and 
quiet that followed, his lapses into unconsciousness diminished 
in frequency but left him a chronic invalid, seldom away from 
bed or couch more than half an hour at a time. He died 
April 13, 1907. 

Dwelley graduated first scholar at Andover, where he had 
Ammidown and his close friend Dorsheimer for classmates. 
He had the poet Stedman as his room-mate for one year at 
Yale, and the Confederate General Marmaduke, sometime 
Governor of Missouri, for another year. Charles Sumner was 
a remote cousin. Dwelley never quite identified himself with 
the Class of '53, though holding agreeable relations with 
single members of it, but rather spoke of himself as a 
" Diploma-man " and as a " quarter-part member," having 
been with the class only in the Senior year — often said that 
he felt he was " in it but not of it," and held himself aloof 
from class gatherings wholly. His college ties were formed 
at Yale and did not yield to Harvard associations. He was 
a good deal of an optimist and could write, after being dis- 
abled for ten years by physical conditions which would have 
served most men as an apology for despair, that he " enjoyed 
life thoroughly," and that he awoke from his periods of 
torpor cheerful and ready for the future, whether it be in 
this world or the next. The mens sana, though not in corpore 
sano, taught him to find his enjoyments in the solid things 
of life. He said he had married, when in mature years — 
old enough to know what he wanted in a wife — the woman 
he wanted. She was much his junior, and cheered his de- 
clining years with a devotion that was ideal. 

Dwelley was married, June 4, 1868, to Florence G., daugh- 

86 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ter of John Spencer and Lydia Ann (Hardison) Pinkham. 
Their children were: Gertrude Florence, born October 31, 
1869; Dora Louise, born January 10, 1878; Grace Russell, 
born January 14, 1881 ; Charles Theodore, born November 
10, 1883; George Merriam, born September 3, 1886. 

WILDER DWIGHT, 

Second son of William Dwight and Eliza Amelia 
(White) Dwight, daughter of Daniel A. White, Judge of 
Probate for Essex County 1815-53, was born April 23, 1833, 
at Springfield, Massachusetts, of sound New England stock, 
distinguished in colonial wars and in civil life. Of his grand- 
fathers one was of the Harvard Class of 1793 and one of that 
of 1797. 

As a boy he exhibited the traits of character which made 
him remarkable in after life — great seriousness, tenacity of 
purpose, and uncommon maturity of reflection. At fifteen 
he wrote : " No man ever did anything in this world, however 
trifling, unless he felt confident of his ability to do it, and 
unless he entered upon it with a cheerful and firm determina- 
tion to accomplish his end, let come what will come." This 
was the keynote of his career. 

He was prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy, 
with a period of six months spent at the military school of 
Z. J. D. Kinsley, near West Point, but his military schooling 
inspired no taste for the military profession. On leaving, he 
wrote, " I shall never evince any desire hereafter to shoulder 
a musket or wear a sword." He entered the Freshman class 
at Harvard in 1849, ^"^^ took and uniformly maintained high 
rank as a student. Devotion to study did not, however, pre- 
vent him from taking part in and heartily enjoying the amuse- 
ments, literary and social, of college life. The Presidency of 
the Hasty Pudding Club is an indication of his popularity, 
but it must fairly be added that the masterful spirit and con- 
sciousness of power which he exhibited stood somewhat in 
the way of his becoming a " universal favorite." The award 
of the jack-knife by the class at graduation was intended for 
a playful reminder that his bumptiousness was appreciated. 

87 



Harvard Class of 1853 



The religious impressions disclosed in a diary kept while 
in college, but read by no one but himself before his death, 
appear to have been deeply serious and much influenced by 
the weighty sermons of Dr. Walker, of which he took notes. 

His part at Commencement was an English oration on 
" Language the Expression of Character." 

On leaving college he entered the Harvard Law School, 
and took his degree of LL.B. in regular course in 1855, after 
gaining the first prize for an essay upon " The Husband's 
Power over the Choses in Action of the Wife." 

It is somewhat remarkable that, with his ardor for an 
active life, he should have been willing to spend the next 
fourteen months in foreign travel. In fact, while abroad and 
after his return, he had misgivings as to the usefulness of 
that occupation, and the " expansion of mind " supposed to 
result therefrom, but whatever he did he did with vigor, and 
travelling was no exception. Writing from Madrid, he said : 
*' What a stimulus being on the spot is ! ... I write and 
think about whatever I can, keep my eyes open, my mind alive, 
and my body active There is no discipline better for the de- 
velopment of energy, physical and mental, than vigorous 
travelling." This may be true, but the development of energy- 
is not the usual aim and object of the average tourist. 

His course was through England and Germany to Switzer- 
land, where the combined inflictions of a mule-kick and of 
typhoid fever laid him up in the neighborhood of the Giess- 
bach — an illness relieved by the care and attention of three 
Harvard friends. Paris and Spain followed ; then Italy, Con- 
stantinople, and the Crimea — the last being fresh in the minds 
of every one on account of the late war — and then Athens. 
His way home lay through France, England, and Scotland. 
In England his classmate, Shaw, then newly arrived in Europe, 
found him in company with James Savage of the Class of 
1854, and enjoyed their society for several days, little think- 
ing of the impending fate which was to unite them in arms 
and in an early death. 

On Dwight's return home, he was admitted, after a short 
experience as student in the ofiice of the Attorney-General, 

88 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Caleb Gushing at Washington, and of Rockwood Hoar in 
Boston, to the Suffolk Bar, on September 9, 1856. As might 
be expected, Dwight's short professional career was all that 
an ardent love of the law, indefatigable industry, and the 
interest and aid of powerful friends could make it. Eminent 
leaders at the Bar entrusted the whole management of im- 
portant causes to him as junior counsel. His future success 
seemed assured, when the summons which he deemed im- 
perative came ^ to drop his books and adopt a new life of 
labor and sacrifice. He had been a strenuous Republican in 
the presidential campaign of i860, and he said to the writer, 
" We have put Lincoln in the chair and we are going to keep 
him there." Accordingly, when George Henry Gordon, a 
West Point graduate who had distinguished himself in the 
Mexican War, and had since been a fellow-student with 
D wight at the Law School, but who was in April, 1861, prac- 
tising law in Boston, proposed to raise a regiment modelled 
upon the regular army of the United States, with enlisted 
men and appointed officers, among the first to offer aid, per- 
son, counsel, and energetic assistance, was Wilder Dwight. 
He was sent, with his future Lieutenant-Colonel, George L. 
Andrews, to Washington to obtain from the War Depart- 
ment the necessary authority for raising such a regiment, the 
result being the creation of the 2d Regiment of Massachusetts 

* Editorial Note. — One day in the spring of 1854, I was sitting with 
other law students, of whom Dwight was one, at a window in the office 
of the Honorable Franklin Dexter, in Court Square, which commanded 
the entrance to the Court House, and there saw Anthony Burns led down 
the Court House steps for his march through State Street to Long Wharf, 
on the way to his rendition. Three of this group — Quincy (H. U. '50), 
then in the office of Charles Greely Loring (H. U. '12) ; Palfrey (H. U. 
'51), then in the office of Sidney Bartlett (H. U. '18); Rantoul (H. U. 
'53), then also in Mr. Loring's office — had been taking notes at the table 
of the Honorable Richard H. Dana (H. U. '37), who had appeared in the 
defence of Burns, before United States Commissioner Edward Greely 
Loring (H. U. '21), and had asked their aid. Until the surrender of 
Thomas Simms two years before, I suppose there had been no rendition 
of a slave in Massachusetts since 1780. No one who listened to the guarded 
but emphatic utterances with which Dwight relieved the tension of that 
humiliating scene was unprepared to learn that, when the summons came, 
the impressions of such an hour had constrained him to forget his distaste 
for military life, and offer to the country the sacrifice he made. 

89 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Volunteers, with whose existence that of Dwight, who was 
commissioned Major May 24, became identified. After a 
camp of instruction and drill at the historic Brook Farm, and 
a hurried advance from Boston, July 8, to Martinsburg, Vir- 
ginia, in the expectation of an engagement with General Joe 
Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley, of which nothing came, 
there followed a long period of inaction on the Maryland bank 
of the Potomac in various camps, continued at Frederick City 
until February 27, 1862. Seven months had thus elapsed 
before the regiment took part in any active engagement. Dur- 
ing this time the most varied duties kept Dwight's attention, 
performed under every sort of discomfort. Sometimes the 
regiment was melted with heat, sometimes drenched with rain 
or chilled with frost. At one time he was acting as escort 
to a wagon-train sent to Washington, and at another sitting 
as president of a court-martial, or on a board for the exami- 
nation of officers. He had the unhappiness to be present at 
the return of the wounded, half-drowned, and half-clothed 
stragglers who escaped from the disaster of Ball's Bluff, 
among whom were personal friends, but although he chafed 
at his enforced absence from the theatre of actual warfare, 
feeling keenly the disappointment caused by the early reverses 
of the Union Arms, yet, throughout it all, his letters show 
no trace of despondency or homesickness, or loss of interest 
in the business in which he was engaged, or loss of faith 
in the cause in which he was enlisted. 

At the end of February, 1862, the 2d Regiment was or- 
dered across the Potomac to encounter the advance of " Stone- 
wall " Jackson down the Shenandoah Valley. Unfortunately 
Dwight had no opportunity to distinguish himself in the one 
decided success of that campaign, the victory over Jackson 
at Kernstown, near Winchester, on March 23, his regiment 
being more than twenty miles away. Immediately after this 
action, it was recalled to join Banks in the pursuit of Jackson, 
who, according to his biographer, " crept along like a wounded 
wolf, turning every moment to snap at his pursuers." The 
pursuit continued until Harrisburg was reached by the main 
body of the 5th Army Corps early in May, but the whole 

90 



Harvard Class of 1853 



business of the advance up the Shenandoah Valley was a dis- 
appointment and a weariness to Dwight. " When we came 
into Newmarket on Friday," he wrote, "we met General 
Banks in high spirits. He complimented our march, said the 
Secretary of War had telegraphed thanks to us, etc., etc., that 
'when our movement was perceived, the rear of Jackson's 
force fled hastily,' etc. My own opinion was that, from the be- 
ginning, it was nonsense and pretty expensive silliness for us. 
Jackson was ready to run, and began to do so as we began to 
move, but perhaps we hastened him a little. Here we are, 
eighty miles from our supplies, all our wagons on the road, 
our tents and baggage behind, our rations precarious, and 
following a mirage in the desert." 

Not the least interesting subjects of Dwight's letters 
written at this time are the native Virginians and the negroes. 
He has very little disposition to look at the Southern cause 
and slavery from any other point of view than that of a 
Northerner and Unionist. " I believe I am fighting in God's 
cause the most diabolical conspirators and rebels and tyrants 
in the world," was his expression, and yet he occasionally 
relents, as when he finds a well-to-do family deprived of its 
head, who was a Major in the Rebel Army, and needing 
protection, and he is ready to say, " The general statement 
that these people are traitors and deserve all the horrors of 
civil war is easy, but the individual case as it comes up in 
your eye, seeing the helpless family in their dismay at our 
approach, can hardly fail to excite sympathy." 

It was now believed that Banks's Corps would be sent east- 
ward in support of McClellan's Peninsular campaign. Banks 
himself fully believed that Jackson had abandoned the valley 
of Virginia permanently, when the " mirage in the desert " 
suddenly became substantial. By the i8th of May a Con- 
federate Army of seventeen thousand men was ready to be 
precipitated upon sixty-four hundred and eight infantry, cav- 
alry, and artillery, which, as Banks reported, made up the 
whole of his command. General Banks was not aroused to 
the peril of the situation until after one day's fighting, in which 
the small force stationed as an outpost at Front Royal was 

91 



Harvard Class of 1853 



practically annihilated. His incredulity and hesitation caused 
much of the disaster which attended the hurried retreat from 
Strasburg of May 24. While this was going on with much 
confusion, the 2d Massachusetts was ordered, with others, 
to form a rear-guard and retrace their march from Bartons- 
ville to Newtowne, driving out the enemy from the latter 
place. Having sustained an artillery combat for two hours, 
and holding the Confederate advance in check, they retired 
from the field as night came on, and during the following 
hours Dwight was placed in a situation which called for the 
highest military qualities, all the greater on account of the 
purely defensive nature of the movement. He was in com- 
mand of the rear-guard with the pursuing enemy upon him, 
under the immediate eye of the great *' Stonewall " himself, 
whose voice was distinctly heard. " As the enemy came in 
sight of the burning wagons, their yells were demoniacal," 
wrote Dwight in his journal. " Expecting an attack of their 
cavalry upon our rear-guard, I prepared for it. Soon the 
sound of approaching horses was heard; the growing dark- 
ness, confused by the glare of the burning wagons, com- 
pelled us to trust our ears. I drew a line of skirmishers in 
two groups near the road, formed the reserve into a square, 
and directed the three bodies so formed to pour their fire 
upon the approaching cavalry at the command from me. The 
cavalry came on; the fire was ordered and delivered; the 
cavalry went back." A second time the cavalry was repulsed, 
and the column moved on, but not without severe skirmishes 
on the way. It was two o'clock in the morning of May 25 
when the 2d Massachusetts sank down to rest just outside 
the town of Winchester. From between two and three o'clock 
in the afternoon of the 24th to between two and three o'clock 
in the morning of the 25th the enemy had been held back. 
The battle before Winchester at daylight was sustained for 
two hours against overwhelming odds. The Confederates 
followed close upon the heels of the Federals into and through 
the town, but Major Dwight had disappeared. Great was 
the anxiety as to his fate at this time, while his conduct called 
forth universal admiration. " This promising and brave of- 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



ficer was cool upon the field, and was much beloved in his 
regiment, and his gallant services on the night of the 24th 
instant will never be forgotten by them," said Gordon. " His 
indomitable pluck and sang-froid were beautiful; bullets and 
death he utterly despised and ignored," said another officer. 
" He is my hero of the fight," said another. " You will 
know," said the Chaplain, " how nobly he commanded the 
little army of skirmishers on Saturday night last, when he 
formed his small force against cavalry and infantry with en- 
tire success; how his clear, cool, and deliberate words of 
command inspired the men so that no man faltered, while 
in ten minutes one company lost one-quarter of its number." 
But his friends were not long in suspense. Let him tell his 
own story in the journal which he kept at Winchester. " We 
passed down into the edge of the town. The regiment was 
forming in line when I reached it. Before I had time to 
go to the left where Colonel Andrews was, the regiment 
moved off again and I followed. It now became a run. The 
fire began to assail us from the cross streets as well as from 
the rear. Just as I was on the edge of the town, one of our 
soldiers called out to me, " Major, I am shot ! " I turned 
to him and took him along a few steps and then took him 
into a house. I told the people they must take care of him, 
and laid him down on a bed, and opened his shirt. I then 
turned to go out, but the butternut soldiery were all around 
the house, and I quietly sat down. A soldier soon came in 
and took me prisoner." After a week's captivity in Win- 
chester, in which he made himself extremely useful to his 
fellow captives, he was released on parole and was received 
in enthusiastic delight by the regiment at Williamsburg on 
June 2, and by his own family at Brookline on the 5th. On 
the 13th he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of his regi- 
ment. Some of his classmates presented him v/ith a dress- 
sword. 

This enforced return to civil life was not what he desired, 
but as he was not destined to enjoy the full reward of his 
services at the return of peace, it fortunately gave him an 
opportunity to receive while living the proofs of the high 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



estimation in which he was held by his fellow citizens, and 
especially of the love and regard of his fellow Alumni at 
Commencement and at the Phi Beta celebration of that year, 
and, further, his friends were glad that he was saved from 
the fearful carnage of the mismanaged battle of Cedar Moun- 
tain during Pope's campaign, where the 2d Massachusetts 
suffered more heavily than in any action of the war. This 
took place on August 9, and, having been exchanged, he 
joined the regiment at Culpeper a few days after in time to 
take part in the retreat to Washington. He wrote from that 
city on September 3 and 5 : " After an experience of sixteen 
days here I am humiliated, exhausted, yet well and deter- 
mined. Our work on the Rappahannock was a series of 
marches, countermarches, vigils, pickets, wet bivouacs; al- 
ways within sound, often within reach of the enemy's can- 
non; moving under the hissing importunity of flying shells 
and round shot. Our risks and chances had been great, but 
we were not in either of the fights at Manassas or Bull 
Run. I am glad of it; unsuccessful battles we have had 
enough of." 

Then followed Lee's invasion of Maryland, and as part 
of McClellan's army the 2d Regiment moved up the Potomac, 
and the hotly contested battle of Antietam was fought on 
September 17, 1862, and here D wight met his fate. He was 
mortally wounded at about noon, while riding along his lines 
and waving the flag of a rebel regiment taken in Sumner's 
charge, and when the regiment fell back, his pain was so 
intense that he refused to be moved. Here, while lying on 
the field under the fire of the two armies, he took from his 
pocket a note which he had written in the morning, and 
added to it as follows : " Dearest Mother, I am wounded so 
as to be helpless. Good-bye, for so it must be. I think I 
die in victory. God defend our country. I trust in God and 
love you all to the last. Dearest love to Father and all my 
dear brothers. Our troops have left the part of the field 
where I lie. Mother, yours. Wilder." In larger and firmer 
characters across the opposite page he wrote these words, 
"All is well with those that have faith." Brought off the 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



field into a place of safety, he was carried into a house at 
Boonsboro, and on the way thither, and the next day, and 
until the second day after the battle, he exhibited the most 
serene fortitude, religious resignation, and consideration for 
all around him, and died in perfect peace of mind on Sep- 
tember 19, 1862. 

The expressions drawn from the general public and from 
the press, following this untimely death at less than thirty, 
were only such as would have been looked for, but the Suf- 
folk Bar, recognizing therein a loss peculiar to itself, put on 
record an estimate of Dwight declaring that it was fortunate 
for his country that he had lived, — a record which no mem- 
ber of the Class of '53 can fail to recall with pride. Judge 
Hoar, to whom the resolutions of the Bar were presented, 
after remarking upon the bright promise of his youth, and 
adding that he showed a natural affinity for able men, said 
that " the honors that he received were generally reserved for 
the elders and the sages of the Law." He has left behind 
him a permanent memorial of himself and a valuable con- 
tribution to the early history of the war in his letters con- 
tained in the " Life and Letters " excellently edited by his 
mother, from which this sketch is largely taken. 

CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT ^ 

I was born March 20th, 1834, at number 31 Beacon Street, 
Boston, the fourth child and only son of Samuel Atkins 
Eliot and Mary Lyman Eliot. My father was the son of 
Samuel Eliot, a successful importer and shop-keeper in Boston. 
My mother was the daughter of Theodore Lyman of Waltham, 
a successful merchant in the East India trade. 

The first school I attended was a private school for little 
children, kept by the Misses Gushing in a private house on 
Bowdoin Street. The second was a school for young boys, 
kept by Rev. Thomas Russell Sullivan in the basement of Park 
Street Church. At ten years of age I entered the Boston Pub- 
lic Latin School, which had then lately taken possession of a 
new building on Bedford Street, Boston. The master of this 
* Written for the Secretary of the Class of 1853. 
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Harvard Class of 1853 



school was Epes Sargent Dixwell (Harvard A.B. 1827). I 
began the study of Latin at about eight years of age and had 
but little access to any studies except Latin, Greek, and ele- 
mentary mathematics until I went to Harvard College at the 
age of fifteen. The Latin School was then managed on the 
most conservative principles, and had admitted to its curricu- 
lum no new studies, such as modern languages and natural 
sciences. In my case, however, the narrow programme of the 
school was supplemented by excellent lessons in carpentry 
and wood-turning which my father — whose ideas about edu- 
cation were much in advance of the times — was at pains to 
procure for me. I was also taught early to take long country 
walks, to make myself familiar with all parts of Boston, and 
to ride, drive, row, and swim. The pupils of the Latin School 
were almost exclusively of American birth, and many well- 
to-do families sent their sons thither, because of its high repu- 
tation as a preparatory school for the American colleges. 
Almost all its graduates went on to Harvard College. 

I entered Harvard College in 1849, "^^'* the opening of the 
presidency of Jared Sparks. At that time few traces remained 
of the elective system which had been introduced and developed 
during the administration of Josiah Quincy. All the studies 
of the Freshman and Sophomore year were required of all 
students. The greater part of the studies of the Junior and 
Senior year were also required of all students; but there was 
a limited choice which could be made by the parents or guar- 
dians of undergraduates among the following studies : Mathe- 
matics, Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, and, in the Senior 
year, Italian. A moderate number of themes and forensics 
were required of every student. In 1849 not a single labora- 
tory existed in Harvard College open to undergraduates. The 
use of the library was not necessary to the prosecution of any 
of the studies of the college, recitation from prescribed text- 
books being the prevailing method of instruction. Every 
student owned his own textbooks, and was not supposed to 
go outside of them. I availed myself of the limited option 
in the Junior and Senior year to give up Greek and pursue 
mathematics. I enjoyed special privileges also in being ad- 



Harvard Class of 1853 



mitted in my Sophomore year and thereafter to the private 
laboratory of the young professor of chemistry Josiah P. 
Cooke, and there I made a good beginning in the laboratory 
study of the science to which I subsequently devoted myself. 

The subjects in which I got beyond the elements while in 
college were chemistry and mathematics ; but I also took pains 
with all the exercises in English composition that were required 
of my class. At the Latin School at the age of thirteen I had 
won the first prize for declamation, and I continued while in 
college to take an interest in the few exercises in declamation. 
These exercises, however, were merely practice in reciting 
before the class pieces committed to memory. 

The Freshmen of 1849 numbered eighty-seven, and the Sen- 
iors of 1853 numbered eighty-eight. At that time the college 
lost very few of the students that had once entered it, and 
every class was expected to graduate with rather more mem- 
bers than had entered with it as Freshmen, because entrance 
to advanced standing was not uncommon. 

For about four months of my Junior year I lost the use of 
my eyes, and was obliged to learn all my lessons by having 
them read to me. This was a trying experience, but it prob- 
ably strengthened the habit of close attention, and the memory. 
I graduated the second scholar in my class. When I found 
myself a Bachelor of Arts I had no idea what profession I 
should follow; and after a vacation spent chiefly in travel 
I returned to my father's house in Boston, and made serious 
efiforts to supplement my college education. I joined a busi- 
ness college to learn bookkeeping, and took lessons in French 
and German, because neither at school nor at college had I 
been required to study these languages, or indeed, been offered 
good opportunities to do so. 

Long walking journeys in summer were a valuable part of 
my training from 185 1 to 1855; and in this way I saw the 
most interesting parts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania from the point of view of the student of miner- 
alogy, mining, and metallurgy as well as of geography and 
landscape. 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



In the late winter of 1853-54 President James Walker, who 
had succeeded President Jared Sparks, offered me, probably 
on the suggestion of Professor Cooke, a tutorship in mathe- 
matics in Harvard College, my service to begin in September, 
1854. In making this proposal President Walker advised me 
to aim at the career of a college teacher. The proposal being 
attractive to me and acceptable to my parents, I accepted the 
appointment, and forthwith prepared to discharge its duties. 
My friend and classmate, James Mills Peirce, was appointed 
Tutor in mathematics at the same time, and together we 
entered upon our new work at the opening of the academic 
year of 1854-55. Tutor Peirce chose the Freshman class, 
leaving me the Sophomore class in that year. After a year's 
experience we applied some new recitation-room methods 
which made the mathematical instruction more effective. 
Finding the existing method of conducting oral examinations 
twice a year in the presence of visiting committees of the 
Board of Overseers very unsatisfactory as a test of the stu- 
dents' knowledge and capacity, we asked leave of the Faculty 
to conduct the mathematical examinations of the Freshmen 
and Sophomores in writing. After a good deal of hesitation 
the Faculty granted us leave to make the experiment; and 
these examinations were the first examinations in writing ever 
conducted for entire classes in Harvard College. The inno- 
vation was gradually adopted in other departments, and ulti- 
mately spread to the whole University. 

I tried to make the teaching of mathematics to the Fresh- 
men and Sophomores as concrete as possible, and to illustrate 
its principles with practical applications. For example, while 
the class were studying trigonometry I taught simple survey- 
ing to a group of volunteers, and with their help made a 
survey of the streets and open spaces of that part of Cam- 
bridge which lies within a mile and a half of University Hall. 
These volunteers made under my direction a careful map of 
what was then the College Yard, with every building, path, 
and tree delineated thereon — a map which is preserved in the 
college library. 

In 1858 Tutor Eliot was promoted to be Assistant Professor 

98 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of mathematics and chemistry — the grade of Assistant Pro- 
fessor being then created for the first time in the University, 
with a definition which has remained unchanged to this day. 
An Assistant Professor is appointed for a term of five years, 
at the end of which period he ceases to be an officer of the 
University unless he is re-appointed or receives a promotion. 
The grade has proved to be one of great value to the Uni- 
versity, and there are now (1910) sixty-eight Assistant Pro- 
fessors connected with the University. 

In 1855-56 and 1857-58 I was a member of a boat club 
which contained no undergraduates, but was made up of di- 
vinity students, law students, scientific students, and a few 
college officers. It was appropriately called the Union Boat 
Club, and aflForded opportunity for these older men to take 
exercise in rowing in both spring and fall without aspiring 
to any great excellence, or taking part in races. In the shift- 
ing crews made up from day to day from members of this 
club I not infrequently rowed either stroke or bow, and came 
to be known as a strong rower for my weight, and one not 
easily fatigued. In the season of 1857 the Harvard eight- 
oared crew had been very badly defeated by a crew organized 
by the Union Boat Club of Boston; and the undergraduates 
were so much discouraged as to Harvard's prospects in row- 
ing that it turned out to be impossible to get together even 
a six-oared crew for the ensuing year without calling upon 
graduates. Two or three undergraduates enlisted Mr. Alex- 
ander Agassiz and me in the effort to get ready a six-oared 
crew for the season of 1858. I had graduated in 1853, and 
Mr. Agassiz in 1855. Thus it came about that I rowed in 
two regattas on Charles River Basin; the first on the 226. 
of June, 1858, and the second on the 4th of July. The crew 
ordered from St. John builders a new boat, which was the 
first shell-boat to appear on the Charles. It was short and 
broad compared with the shells of today, but it was much 
lighter in construction and much more ticklish than Harvard 
crews had been accustomed to. It had long outriggers, but 
no sliding seats and no coxswain. The bow oar used the 
rudder by means of a yoke which was close to his feet. In 

99 



Harvard Class of 1853 



both these races the Harvard crew carried off the first prize, 
a purse of money. In both races a large number of boats 
started, and in the second race the competing crews were 
required to go twice over the three-mile course, the city com- 
mittee which managed the Fourth of July race supposing that, 
although the Harvard youth might be able to row three miles 
rapidly, they could not row six miles. 

It was on the occasion of the regatta of June 22d that red 
was first used as a distinguishing color for Harvard. The 
crew were very poor, had not been able to pay for their new 
boat, and had no service or helpers of any sort. They were 
in the habit of rowing in their ordinary underclothing, wear- 
ing miscellaneous hats and caps. When they learnt that 
fourteen boats were to start in the regatta, and that the crews 
of most of them were uniformed, they agreed that it was 
necessary to have some distinguishing mark for the Harvard 
crew. Whereupon Crowninshield and Eliot went to the store 
of C. F. Hovey & Company, and asked to be shown hand- 
kerchiefs of strong, fast color. Handkerchiefs were produced 
in red, blue, green, and several other colors; but it happened 
that Crowninshield and Eliot preferred the very handsome 
red of certain Chinese silk handkerchiefs; and accordingly 
the Harvard crew wore red silk handkerchiefs tied round 
their heads. This was their only distinguishing mark. The 
introduction of the aniline dyes and the battle of Magenta 
occurring shortly after, the Harvard color degenerated for a 
few years into magenta ; but that color proving not fast, crim- 
son became the Harvard color. Mr. Agassiz and I were 
not eligible for the race with Yale, which was to occur at 
Springfield in the same year; so our places were filled with 
undergraduates. But the race at Springfield did not occur, 
because of the drowning of one of the Yale crew. 

The training in those days was short and by no means 
strict. There was no rubbing* down, and no bathing was pos- 
sible in the rough boathouses of that day. We did all our 
own work of every description, rowed our boat three miles 
down to the starting-point just before the races, and rowed 
back to Cambridge after the races ; and such a thing as f aint- 

100 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ing or being exhausted was never thought of. In all prob- 
ability it was not possible for a crew to make on a fixed seat 
so great efforts as the sliding seat permits; and at that time 
there was no public sentiment to the effect that every member 
of a crew ought to " row himself out " in a race. On the 
contrary, it was a reason for replacing one man in the crew 
of June 22d that he showed signs of exhaustion in the race ; 
and this judgment was sound, as the subsequent career of this 
member of the original crew abundantly demonstrated. 

During all the weeks of preparation for these races I was 
doing my full work as Assistant Professor of Mathematics 
and Chemistry, and was superintending the building of the 
double house on Kirkland Street which I had designed. I 
was also superintending the finishing of Appleton Chapel by 
request of the Corporation, who had been greatly disappointed 
by the slow progress of that work. Moreover, I was mak- 
ing preparations for my marriage to Miss Ellen Derby Pea- 
body, which took place in the following October. My row- 
ing, far from being my business at the time, was merely an 
enjoyable byplay. It never did me the slightest harm, either 
at the time or afterward. I was, however, twenty-four years 
of age, had learned to row when I was a mere boy, and had 
always been fond of strenuous bodily exercise. I ought per- 
haps to add that of the seven men who rowed in the Charles 
River races in the Harvard boat of 1858 only two had a 
bodily life-record which could fairly be called thoroughly good. 
This less than satisfactory record in five cases out of seven 
cannot, however, be attributed to the effects of the rowing 
done in youth. Many causes probably contributed to the 
rather disappointing physical outcome of five after-lives. 

For several years while I was a member of the College 
Faculty as Tutor and Assistant Professor I made the Tabular 
View for all college recitations and lectures. I got into this 
work by volunteering to draw up a Tabular View which 
would carry out two plans proposed by President Walker. 
He wished to have every college class divided for recitation 
purposes into more sections than had been customary — into 
three sections where two had been customary, into four where 

101 



Harvard Class of 1853 



three had been customary; and he also wished every under- 
graduate to have one recitation in the morning, one in the 
middle of the day, and one in the afternoon on every week 
day except Saturday, when the midday and afternoon exer- 
cises were omitted, I succeeded in making, for all the col- 
lege exercises, a Tabular View in which these two wishes of 
President Walker were carried out; and this schedule was 
ultimately adopted by the College Faculty, although it in- 
creased the amount of weekly work done by nearly every col- 
lege teacher, and increased it in the most objectionable way, 
namely, by requiring of the teacher more repetitions of each 
lesson. I experienced myself the full dulling effect of four 
repetitions of the same lesson on the same day, and witnessed 
the effects of such uninteresting repetitions on nearly all the 
college teachers. I also saw that, when the subjects of study 
were prescribed for all the students, it was impossible by 
any mechanical means to get real work done by that consid- 
erable proportion of undergraduates which, under such a sys- 
tem, takes no interest in the prescribed subjects. I also learnt 
at this time that the competition in study and attainment is 
very limited under a prescribed system, in spite of the fact 
that all the members of a large class are pursuing the same 
subject. It is limited for two reasons, first, because the larger 
part of the class has to be counted out from the start — they 
are not competing for excellence — and secondly, because such 
competition as exists is competition among young men all of 
whom are pursuing an elementary study. It is competition 
among beginners, and not among advanced students. Now 
the competition among beginners does not compare in stren- 
uousness and efficiency with the competition among young 
men who have already made considerable attainments. These 
observations on the working of a prescribed course of study 
for undergraduates were not without influence on my sub- 
sequent action when, ten years later in the Presidency, I had 
opportunity to further the progressive development of an elec- 
tive system in Harvard College. I saw clearly that a pre- 
scribed system, particularly when it was conducted with all 
possible efficiency, had a very deadening effect on scholarship 

102 



Harvard Class of 1853 



and intellectual ambition in the teacher. On the other hand, 
after 1858, I had, by the favor of Professor Cooke and with 
the encouragement of President Walker, some opportunities 
to teach chemistry and mineralogy to small elective classes, 
and I fully appreciated the stimulating effect of those attempts 
on myself, and the much greater satisfaction to be obtained 
in teaching a small class of young men who had chosen to 
study the subject, than in teaching a large class, most of the 
members of which had been driven against their will to some 
slight contact with the subject. In short, as a student, under- 
graduate, and young Tutor and Assistant Professor at Har- 
vard, I had abundant opportunity to see the narrowness, ele- 
mentary quality, and inefficiency of a prescribed curriculum. 

In October, 1858, I was married to Ellen Derby Peabody, 
eldest daughter of Rev. Ephraim Peabody, who was the min- 
ister of King's Chapel, Boston, from 1845 to 1856. We oc- 
cupied the easterly house of a brick block of two houses on 
the Norton estate, near the lower end of Kirkland Street. 
The westerly of the two houses was occupied at the same 
time by my father and mother, who in the panic of 1857 had 
lost their entire property and been obliged to leave the house 
in Beacon Street, Boston, which had been built for them thirty 
years before. The plans for these two houses with all their 
details I had drawn in the preceding spring. 

In 1860-61 the Corporation directed Assistant Professor 
Eliot to take charge of the chemical laboratory of the Law- 
rence Scientific School, a serious undertaking for so young 
a man whose whole training in chemistry had been received 
in Harvard College, and who had never given but one course 
of public lectures on chemistry, namely, a course in the Medi- 
cal School in the winter of 1856-57. The chemical labora- 
tory of the Lawrence Scientific School had been created by 
Professor Eben N. Horsford, who was Rumfcrd Professor 
of the Application of Science to the Useful Arts from 1847 
to 1863; and the chemical department of that school occupied 
an independent position, having no connection with Harvard 
College, and having an annual budget and resources of its 
own. In 1863, about twenty months after the Rev. Thomas 

103 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Hill had become President of Harvard University, Professor 
Horsford resigned, and the Rumford Professorship became 
vacant. This vacancy w^as one to which I, as Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry, naturally aspired; but it was filled by 
the election of the distinguished chemist, Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, 
who was to take charge of the chemical laboratory of the 
Lawrence Scientific School in the following September. My 
five-year term as Assistant Professor expired in March, 1863; 
but by request of the Corporation I remained in charge of 
the laboratory until the close of the academic year. Under 
these circumstances I lost in the summer of 1863 all connec- 
tion with Harvard University, since the Corporation was 
unable to provide me with any position I was willing to ac- 
cept. I was twenty-nine years old, had a wife and two young 
children, and had acquired rather an intimate knowledge of 
three departments of Harvard University, namely, Harvard 
College, the Medical School, and the Lawrence Scientific 
School; but I was wholly unknown as a scholar and teacher 
outside of Harvard University, except that I had published 
some chemical investigations under the general guidance of 
Professor Cooke and in collaboration with my friend Frank 
H. Storer. It was a grave question whether I should hold 
to the profession I had chosen, or abandon it for some sort 
of manufacturing business, a pursuit for which I and some 
of my friends thought I had some capacity. In the late spring 
of 1863 I had been offered by Governor Andrew through 
James Russell Lowell orally a commission as Colonel — or 
more probably Lieutenant-Colonel — of cavalry, an offer 
which had for me great attractions; but after a week of 
anxious deliberation I had declined the offer on the ground 
that I was the only son of my mother — who was a widow — 
and that I was the only available man in the family of my 
wife's mother, who was also a widow. This decision cost 
me much distress; for I felt strongly the call of the country 
— a call which many of my friends had eagerly obeyed. It 
was a comfort to me that Mr. Lowell approved my decision. 

In the early summer I decided to stick to the profession 
of education; and the better to prepare myself for it I re- 

104 



Harvard Class of 1853 



solved to spend two years in Europe, studying educational 
institutions and pursuing my studies in chemistry and tech- 
nology. Accordingly I sailed for Europe in September with 
my wife and our two children, and spent the following two 
years in England, France, and Germany, making long stays 
in London, Paris, and Marburg, and travelling moderately 
during the summers. I thus obtained considerable knowl- 
£"dge of university administration in different countries of 
Europe, of the organization of technical schools, and of the 
prevailing methods of teaching chemistry and physics. I also 
made the acquaintance of some of the principal libraries and 
museums of Europe. 

While staying in Rome in April, 1865 — I heard of the 
assassination of Lincoln while I was attending a service in 
the Sistine Chapel — I received from Mr. Francis B. Crown- 
inshield an offer of the superintendency of the Merrimac 
Mills in Lowell, at a salary of five thousand dollars with the 
occupancy of an excellent house. Mr. Crowninshield had 
known me as a teacher in Harvard College, and particularly 
as manager of the chemical laboratory in the Lawrence Scien- 
tific School from 1861 to 1863. This occupation was de- 
cidedly congenial, and pecuniarily considered was much more 
profitable than any college professorship in the United States 
at that time; but it involved the abandonment of the profes- 
sion for which I had been preparing myself for eleven years. 
While I was discussing this grave question with my wife came 
the news of the fall of Richmond. After a week of delib- 
eration I declined Mr. Crowninshield's proposal, with the 
entire approval of my wife. A few weeks later, while the 
family were making a short stay in Vienna, Professor Wil- 
liam B. Rogers of Boston offered me by letter a Professor- 
ship of Chemistry in the new Institute of Technology, which 
was to open its classes in September, 1865. The salary pro- 
posed was two thousand dollars. No students had yet been 
enrolled, and the whole undertaking was novel and evidently 
depended for success on the wisdom and personal influence 
of its head, Professor Rogers. I gladly accepted Professor 
Rogers's proposal, and returned to my house in Cambridge 

105 



Harvard Class of 1853 



in season to join the new Faculty of the Institute of Tech- 
nology in the last weeks of September. 

During the next four years my professional labors were 
given entirely to the new Institute, organizing and building 
up, in cooperation with my friend and colleague Professor 
Frank H. Storer, the chemical department of that institu- 
tion. To help on this work we published two textbooks, one 
on general chemistry and the other on qualitative analysis, 
in which a method of experimenting by the student himself 
replaced the former method of memorizing rules and descrip- 
tions of principles and processes. This was distinctly pioneer 
work in the teaching of chemistry. 

in the summer of 1866 my wife developed symptoms of 
tuberculosis, and for two years and a half a series of changes 
of residence took place in the hope of finding a more favor- 
able climate than that of Cambridge. At that time, however, 
the fresh air treatment for tuberculosis had not been devel- 
oped, and American physicians had apparently not reahzed 
the contagiousness of the disease. During this interval the 
family spent a year in Europe, trying the prescriptions of 
health-resort physicians; but the summer of 1868 found us 
in Brookline, and the winter of 1868-69 was passed in Bos- 
ton. The Cambridge home had been definitely abandoned. 
On the 13th of March, 1869, my wife died. Four days be- 
fore, while I was attending a meeting of the Board of Over- 
seers of Harvard College — I had been elected a member of 
the Board by the alumni at the preceding Commencement — 
Dr. George Putnam, a member of the Corporation, called me 
aside and told me that the Corporation desired to choose me 
President of Harvard College; and this election was soon 
after made in the Corporation and sent to the Overseers for 
their consent. Thereupon a vigorous discussion arose in that 
Board. A few months before I had published in the " At- 
lantic Monthly " two articles entitled " The New Educa- 
tion " ; so that my opinions about education, which were at 
that time rather novel in eastern Massachusetts, were accessible 
in print to all the members of the Board. The Overseers 
by a large majority returned my election to the Corporation, 

106 



Harvard Class of 1853 



adopting this gentle, but, as they supposed, decisive way of 
rejecting it. After an interval of more than two months the 
Corporation returned my election to the Overseers, who there- 
upon consented to it by a vote of sixteen to eight. The con- 
sent of the Board was given on the 19th of May. I had not 
taken much interest in the discussion over me, and was con- 
tent to find relief from the sorrow at home in strenuous labor 
at the Institute of Technology. When, however, my election 
as President had been completed — unexpectedly to me — 
I turned at once to the study of the functions of the Presi- 
dent and of the needs of Harvard University, and in a few 
weeks had become absorbed in the new duties. Owing to 
the recent death of my wife, I did not attend the Commence- 
ment of June, 1869, so that Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, who 
had been Acting-President during the long illness of President 
Hill, discharged the duties of President at that festival. The 
name of the new President was not mentioned on that Com- 
mencement Day until the very close of the Alumni Dinner, 
when Mr. Joseph H. Choate of New York said a few friendly 
words about him which were well received by the alumni, 
and were very grateful to the untried and absent President. 

From May, 1869, forward, I worked day and evening 
steadily and intensely, partly to prevent myself from revert- 
ing to the sorrows of the preceding three years, and partly 
from extreme interest in the new work I had undertaken under 
circumstances which suggested strongly that I had better jus- 
tify the choice of the Corporation, if I could. 

As I look back on the years which succeeded my election 
to the Presidency of Harvard, I see that I was probably saved 
from physical breakdown by two practices, one of which I 
set up immediately in the summer of 1869, and the other 
of which I adopted in the summer of 1871. The first was 
the practice of riding horseback every day, usually in the 
afternoon ; and the second was cruising in summer along the 
coast of New England in a small sloop of my own, and camp- 
ing in tents during a part of each summer on the seashore. 
Seven years the camp was on Calf Island in Frenchman's 
Bay, Maine, and one year on Nonamesset Island, adjoining 

107 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Naushon. In Cambridge my two boys went to school in the 
morning, and played out-of-doors in the afternoon when the 
weather permitted. I saw them in the early morning and 
at meal-times, and in the summer they went cruising and 
camping with me. As soon as they were large enough, I 
taught them to ride, with the help of an extraordinarily tough, 
intelligent, and obstinate pony which had no difficulty in 
keeping up with my good-sized horse. 

At that time Harvard College, and indeed the whole of 
Harvard University, was shut up during all the long sum- 
mer vacation. There was no large summer school, and little 
work of any sort going on except repairs on the buildings. The 
entire correspondence for Harvard College was looked after 
by a single secretary. Even in the eighties Miss Harris without 
assistance dealt with the College mail answering many inquiries 
herself, and distributing the rest to the various officers con- 
cerned, who were with hardly an exception absent from Cam- 
bridge during the summer months. Her room in the second 
storey of University Hall was so solitary that she asked that the 
door, now the door of University 5, be replaced by a strong iron 
grating locked from within. The grating made her feel safe, 
and permitted the passage of the southwest wind through her 
room. From 1870 to 1881 the letters which the President 
needed to answer were sent to him at any small harbor along 
the New England coast where he expected to drop in within 
a week or so, in accordance with directions by note from 
some port into which he had gone in a similar casual way. 
For half the summer he often went a week or ten days without 
receiving any mail from Cambridge ; and no harm came from 
this leisurely method of conducting the official correspondence. 

In our cruising I went captain and pilot until my sons be- 
came old enough to manage the boat. In fifteen years of 
cruising along the New England Coast, 1870 to 1884, although 
we had many adventures in fog or wind, we never met with 
any serious accident to our sloop, except that she was once 
dismasted in a heavy northwester off Fisherman's Island, 
Maine, through the breaking of a chain-plate. On the whole, 
we found our water sports safer than our horse sports. Be- 

108 



Harvard Class of 1853 



tween Watch Hill, Connecticut, and Eastport, Maine, there 
are few harbors or rivers into which our forty-foot sloop 
did not go in one season or another; but I recall only three 
occasions on which we took a pilot — once in passing through 
Hell Gate before it had been made comparatively safe by 
the United States engineers; the second time in crossing the 
bar at Nantucket after sunset; and the third time when ap- 
proaching Stonington (then Green's Landing), Maine, in a 
dense fog. This sort of cruising was not only wholesome and 
enjoyable for me, but was highly instructive and interesting 
for my boys, on both of whom it had a strong permanent 
influence. Three years after we built a cottage at Northeast 
Harbor in the Island of Mt. Desert (1881) this cruising came 
to an end. My sons were diverted to other sports or to profes- 
sional work, and I adopted the sports appropriate to cottage 
life at Mt. Desert, — walking, driving, and sailing in a half- 
open boat. 

I thought I should be able to continue my studies and 
my researches in chemistry when I entered upon the Presi- 
dent's functions, but a few months' experience taught me that 
all expectation of so doing must be abandoned; and, more- 
over, that I should not be able to take part in actual teach- 
ing. In September, 1869, I moved with my two boys into 
the President's house on Quincy Street, where I subsequently 
lived for forty years. What I have thought about and done 
during those forty years need not be recorded here. The 
printed record is contained in my Annual Reports as Presi- 
dent of Harvard College to the Board of Overseers, the first 
of which was presented to the Board in 1870, and the last 
in 1909 covering the year 1907-08. During this long period 
the University increased greatly in size, wealth, and influence ; 
this increase was due to a great variety of causes, and to the 
labors of a group of men in the Corporation, Overseers, and 
Faculties, who worked together towards common educational 
and ethical ideals. For the first twenty years progress was 
made through continuous struggle against the resistance of 
many wise and honorable persons, both within and without 
the University. During the second twenty years there was 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



much less conflict; because the ideals of the group of active 
workers to which I belonged became the ideals of a consid- 
erable majority of the friends of the University and of the 
college officers. 

In October, 1877, I married Grace Mellen Hopkinson, 
younger daughter of Judge Thomas Hopkinson who was first 
scholar in the Class of 1830, and became, first a Judge of 
the Court of Common Pleas, and then President of the Bos- 
ton and Worcester Railroad Company, a corporation which 
in the middle of the nineteenth century was one of the most 
considerable in the United States. 

The President of Harvard University is inevitably called 
upon to make many public addresses in the course of a year. 
He is expected to be present at public dinners of all sorts. 
He must also make occasional addresses before teachers' as- 
sociations, schools, and other universities, and he must mani- 
fest by his presence his interest in many good public causes 
and enterprises. H he is endeavoring to advance, in the 
university, policies and projects which must commend them- 
selves to the Faculties, the Overseers, and the Corporation 
before they can be made effective, he will have frequent oc- 
casion to urge his views in the meetings of these bodies, and 
he will have much practice in forcible and persuasive argu- 
mentation. He will often have to speak without opportunity 
for specific preparation, although as a rule he is called upon 
to speak only on subjects with which his regular duties have 
made him familiar. All through my Presidency I had a great 
deal of practice in the sort of speaking I have just described, 
and in the last ten years I made public addresses on a con- 
siderable variety of subjects, and at many different places in 
all parts of the country. Most of these addresses were of 
an ephemeral nature, or related to some question which was 
temporarily interesting the community or the institution where 
I was speaking. A few of them were suitable for subsequent 
publication as magazine articles. I have always tried to be 
simple, concise, and pointed in my public utterances, whether 
extemporaneous or written out beforehand. Experience at 
last taught me that there is, and ought to be, a real differ- 

IIQ 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ence of style between a speech and an essay written before- 
hand and read to an audience. Many a speech which was 
well adapted to produce upon the audience of the moment the 
effect intended, reads badly -when printed just as it was 
spoken. An accurate shorthand report of a good speech may 
not read well when put into print, and may even seem ol>- 
scure to the reader when it was perfectly clear to the hearer. 
I have always found it disagreeable to revise for printing the 
shorthand report of a speech. 

As time went on, and the controversial character of the 
work I was doing in the University diminished in intensity, 
there was more public recognition of certain good results from 
my labors. At the twenty-fifth anniversary of my service 
as President, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences celebrated the 
event in a manner which was very grateful to me, particularly 
as many college officers joined in it with whom I had often 
had strong differences of opinion. On my seventieth birth- 
day, March 20th, 1904, all the Faculties joined in expressions 
of satisfaction and approval. The recognition by foreign 
nations of the merits of Harvard University, through con- 
ferring honors on its President, began in 1903 with the con- 
ferring on me by France of the insignia of an Officer in the 
Legion of Honor. In the following year I was made a 
Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Moral 
and Political Sciences. In 1908 I received the insignia of 
Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy, and in 1909 the Royal 
Order of the Prussian Crown, and the Imperial Order of 
the Rising Sun of Japan, these three decorations being all 
of the first class. 

In October, 1908, I resigned the Presidency, my resigna- 
tion to take effect at the convenience of the President and 
Fellows but not later than May 19th, 1909. The Board kept 
me in office until that date. 

In January, 1909, my wife and I, having decided that we 
wished to continue to live in Cambridge, picked out after 
thorough search what seemed to us the most agreeable house- 
site in Cambridge then for sale. We have since altered the 
house, which had stood upon this site since 1838, to suit our 

111 



Harvard Class of 1853 



needs. In March, 19 lo, we occupied the house, and found 
it to our entire satisfaction. I am in receipt of a retiring 
allowance from the Carnegie Foundation and Harvard Uni- 
versity, and am also enjoying the income of the Charles Wil- 
liam Eliot Fund, to which about twenty-two hundred gradu- 
ates and friends of Harvard contributed. I have continued 
since my retirement to work for certain public interests closely 
related to each other, which have long engaged my attention, 
and which I believe to be of fundamental concern to demo- 
cratic society. The chief of these interests are education, 
civil-service reform, municipal reform, capitalism and union- 
ism in a democracy, preventive medicine, and conservation. 
They all relate to the building up, under free institutions, 
of sound character in the individual citizen and in the nation. 

Most of my printed writings seem to me to have only a 
temporary value; that is, they have been contributions to 
discussions which were of importance at the moment, but are 
not likely to possess any permanent interest. If I might guess, 
however, there are three of my books — two very small — 
which may possibly have some durability: The Happy Life; 
John Gilley; and Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. For 
men charged with university administration in the future, my 
little book on that subject may conceivably have some his- 
torical value, and in the long series of my Annual Reports 
as President of Harvard University some educational re- 
former may hereafter be interested to trace the many steps 
and stages of the remarkable development Harvard University 
exhibited in the forty years from 1869 to 1909. 

I have found the real satisfactions of life to increase as 
life goes on. 

Charles W. Eliot. 

17 Fresh Pond Parkway, 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

30 April, 1910. 

P. S. Cambridge, 22 February, 1913. 

Between the 5th of November, 191 1, and the lOth of 
August, 191 2, I went round the world in the service of the 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, accompanied 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



by Mrs. Eliot, my eldest granddaughter Ruth Eliot, and a 
secretary, Mr. Roger Pierce (H. U. 1904), the expenses of 
the journey being paid by that Endowment. I was charged 
to inquire into the means of promoting peace in the Orient, 
particularly in Qiina and Japan, and to make known, so far 
as possible, in the cities I visited, the purposes and objects 
of the Carnegie Endowment. Leaving Genoa on November 
i6th, I landed at Colombo on the 2d of December, 191 1, and 
left Yokohama on July 13th, 1912, after a great variety of 
intensely interesting experiences. The journey is a very in- 
teresting one for any ordinary tourist, because of the variety 
of new sights and sounds inevitably met with on the way; 
but for me it had much stronger appeals, because I was 
studying the intellectual and moral, as well as the industrial 
and political conditions of the various Oriental peoples among 
whom I journeyed, and chiefly by conversation with in- 
telligent and responsible Orientals identified with the com- 
merce, manufactures, education, and political and religious in- 
stitutions of the Orient. Although I had travelled in the near 
East before, I had never seen the Far East; and if I had 
had my choice of the most interesting time to visit the Orient 
in all the last two thousand years, I could not have selected 
a more interesting period than just that on which I happened. 
It was, however, a queer year in which to be serving as a 
peace-envoy. Italy seized upon Tripoli without any warrant ; 
Russia invaded Persia with great violence on the north while 
England on the south looked on; China broke out in revo- 
lution; and the Balkan States, to the surprise of Europe, 
suddenly made a concerted effort to rid themselves of the 
Turkish yoke. Nevertheless, there is a reasonable hope that 
some slow-working forces towards greater good-will among 
men may have been set in motion during that same year. 

Mrs. Eliot and I have returned with joy to our home in 
Cambridge, where five households of near kindred live not 
far from us. I have eleven grandchildren, four boys and 
seven girls, whose ages range from six to twenty-three. 

Of late, I am often asked to what I attribute my health 
and long-continued capacity for active exertion. The best 

113 



Harvard Class of 1853 



answer I am able to give is — to a sound constitution never 
impaired by any serious disease or accident, a calm tempera- 
ment expectant of good, the habit of taking daily exercise 
in the open air, moderation in eating, and a slight, and never 
steady or regular, use of stimulants, like tea, coffee, alcohol, 
and tobacco. Tobacco I have not used at all, except on rare 
occasions between 1854 and 1858. I have used tea most, 
because it seems to me to facilitate the mental effort of 
writing or speaking. 

Editorial Note. — It has been thought well to add to this sketch the 
petition presented to the Corporation in 1909, drawn up by Dr. White, and 
signed by every living Professor of the Medical School, asking that Eliot 
be given the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine. The honor was be- 
stowed upon him at that time. 

To the Fellows of Harvard College : 

Gentlemen, — We, active and retired Professors in the 
Medical School, some of us members of the Medical Faculty 
from the early days of President Eliot's term of office, ear- 
nestly request the Fellows of Harvard College to confer the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine upon him. They ask 
this for the following reasons. 

The condition of the Medical School and of Medical Edu- 
cation in this country before his connection with the Univer- 
sity was deplorable. The teachers in our school were sup- 
ported by the fees received directly from their pupils; the 
greater the number of the latter the greater the income of the 
professor. There were no requirements for entrance to the 
school, and those for leaving it with the degree of Doctor 
of Medicine were trivial. The instruction given was wholly 
by lectures, and was limited to four months in the year. 
There was no gradation of students. Any one of them after 
paying for two courses of lectures and passing a ten-minutes' 
oral examination of low grade in a majority of the subjects 
taught received his degree, which carried with it the right 
to practise medicine in Massachusetts. 

It was at this time, in 1870, that Mr. Eliot became Presi- 
dent, and under constitutional authority assumed the chair- 

114 



Harvard Class of 1853 



manship of the Medical Faculty. In this way for the first 
time could the governing bodies of the University become 
informed of the state of affairs in this important department. 
Thereafter all committees of the Faculty were appointed by 
the President, and among the first of these was one to con- 
sider what changes were needed to correct this deplorable 
condition. As a result of this movement professors were 
thereafter appointed by the Corporation, the Faculty retain- 
ing only the power of nomination. Teachers no longer had 
any direct interest in students' fees, but received instead a 
salary. Teaching was systematized and graded, and extended 
throughout the year as in other departments of the university. 
Proper examinations were instituted at the end of each year, 
and the final one for a degree required a satisfactory knowl- 
edge in every branch taught. Laboratory instruction was 
introduced, as well as a four-years' course of study. 

In all these radical changes President Eliot took a leading 
and controlling part. From the first he infused courage and 
gave powerful support to the young reformers within the 
Faculty. He was ever in the lead in suggesting measures, 
and active in procuring their adoption in the two governing 
bodies of the University. It may be truly said that without 
his persistent, powerful, and courageous help such reforms 
in medical education could not have been accomplished. 

But it was not wholly within the University that he made 
his influence felt. He was constant in presenting his views 
of the low state of Medical Education, and the efforts of the 
school to elevate it, to the profession on all public oppor- 
tunities, and calling attention to what had been accomplished 
by the school and what yet remained to be done, with his 
wonderful gift of lucid statement and persuasive eloquence. 

Perhaps those of us who were members of the Medical 
Faculty before his presidency, now few in number, can alone 
justly appreciate the full measure of what President Eliot 
has done for the uplifting of medical education and the medi- 
cal profession, but all of us who present this petition, and 
the profession at large, will surely see the justice of the re- 
quest and recognize what an honor the enrolment of his 

115 



Harvard Class of 1853 



name in our ranks will be, however much it may fail of full 
reward for his great services. If such action on the part of 
the governing bodies be unprecedented in the long annals of 
the University, surely the occasion for conferring such hon- 
orary degree in medicine, and for inscribing the name of 
such a benefactor on its rolls, is equally without precedent. 

JOHN ERVING 

Was born, July 6, 1833, in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 
He was the son of Colonel John Erving and Emily Sophia 
Langdon-Elwyn Erving. His great-grandfather, John 
Erving, 2d, graduated from Harvard College in 1747, and his 
great-great-uncle. Major William Erving, who was gradu- 
ated in 1753, just a century before us, established at Harvard 
the Erving Professorship of Chemistry, the first of its kind. 

Erving attended school at Savannah, Georgia, and at Duff's 
Military School at New Brighton, Staten Island, and then was 
for five years at the school of the brothers Peugnet in New 
York City. 

At the time of his maturity and after, Erving displayed the 
type of manly vigor, and, with plenty of military blood in his 
veins, naturally turned his face towards West Point, but the 
vacancies being disposed of for the moment, he decided, at the 
age of seventeen, to enter the Sophomore class of Harvard 
College, where he became at once a marked figure for his 
prowess, especially among the boating men. Having joined 
the class in the summer of 1850, he was graduated in course 
with creditable rank, taking, in company with Davis, at the 
end of the Junior year, the Boylston Prize for declamation. 
Erving's college rank is not to be dismissed as simply credit- 
able. It was distinguished. In his first Junior term he led 
with Edward Pearce in astronomy, and in curves and func- 
tions was ahead of Eliot and Hosmer, and abreast of Edward 
Pearce and James Mills Peirce, outstripping all others. In the 
second term Junior he maintained an equal lead, besides being 
third in physics and in the general term aggregate. In the 
first term Senior, Erving led in philosophy, morality and fo- 
rensics, and was tied with Hosmer in the lead, in optics and 

116 



Harvard Class of 1853 



natural philosophy. He was tied with Eliot, Edward Pearce 
and James Mills Peirce in the lead, in curves and functions. 
In the second term Senior, Dwight led in natural and revealed 
religion with Erving, tied with Eliot and Hosmer, next. In 
the general term aggregate Erving held fourth place. In the 
final score Erving was third. He left the Dane Law School in 
1855, ^^^ was admitted to the New York Bar in 1856. 

Erving belonged to a fighting clan, and when the Civil War 
broke out he found it impossible to curb the ancestral spirit. 
He served with the 7th Regiment in 1861 and in 1863. He 
reported for duty in 1862, but was excused on account of the 
fatal illness of his father. Colonel John Erving, late ist Ar- 
tillery, U. S. A., who had served for fifty-three years, first in 
the War of 1 812-15, then in several Indian wars at the South, 
and last in the Mexican War. 

Erving entered the Bar when three years out of college, but 
for many years has been retired from active practice. He has 
been a resident of New York City since 1855, passing his sum- 
mers until a few years ago at Rye. On April 22, 1862, he 
married Cornelia Van Rensselaer, daughter of William P. 
Van Rensselaer, who was the son of Stephen Van Rensselaer 
of Albany, the last Patroon. They had a large family of chil- 
dren. Some items of the record are as follows: 

Susan V. R. Erving, died July i, 1912. 

Cornelia V. R. Erving, married John V. L. Pruyn, and after 
his death, Hamilton L. Hoppin. 

John Langdon Erving, married Alice H. Rutherford. 

Emily Elwyn Erving, married Henry W. Cooper. 

Sarah E. Erving, married James Gore King (H. U. 1889), 
son of Edward King, '53, and the third Harvard graduate 
bearing his name ; the fourth King generation in lineal descent. 

William V. R. Erving. 

Katharine V. R. Erving. 

Eleanor C. Erving. 

Frances Shirley Erving, died September 29, 1878, 

Walter Shirley Erving. 

Justine Bayard Erving. 

Philip Livingston Erving, died May 11, 1885. 

117 



Harvard Class of 1853 



With Erving, as with Dwight and Paine and Hurd, there 
was no cedant arma to gee. A brother-lawyer of the class re- 
ceived from him, in the midst of the War, a business letter, 
written from the front in pencil, which shows at once the 
spirit in which he had left home, and the high pressure under 
which national operations were moving. The letter in part 

follows : 

Bivouac near Frederick, Md., 
July 13, 1863. 

... On the 17th ult. I left N. Y. at a few hours' notice with the 
7th Regt., to which I belong, for Harrisburg, as we supposed, but 
for Baltimore, as actually happened. A week ago we came here 
to the front, and I got your letter yesterday at the hog-pen which 
we occupy, on the Emmettsburg road, where my Company, the 
6th, is now doing outpost duty with " yrs. truly " as ist Sergeant. 
The deeds are in my safe, and I was about sending them to you 
when I left. I had no time to write a line on business to anyone. 

I have received no circular about class matters of any kind. 
We hope to be relieved on or about the 17th or i8th, and I will 
then send the deeds, etc., as soon as I can. 

What day is Class Meeting? I should like much to be there. 
Send me word addressed to my office as usual, for our return too 
soon for a letter addressed here to reach me is possible. 

Should this reach you in time, mention my absence to them, 
and remember me to Peirce and other friends. 

The duty is disgusting ; the departure very hard, but I thought 
I ought to go. I left a wife and a little one a few weeks old. 

I am writing in a kind of leaky shanty on the side of the road. 
We have no pen or ink; feed on hard tack and bacon, and are 
as dirty a set in appearance as you ever saw. No time for more. 
Will write as soon as I can on return. I had not a moment to do 
so before leaving N. Y., and little time since. 

Yrs. faithfully, 

J. Erving. 

CORNELIUS FISKE, 

Son of Elijah and Bathsheba (Brooks) Fiske, was 
born at Lincoln, Massachusetts, on the 23d of March, 1830. 

His education began in the town school of his native place, 
and after studying with private tutors he entered the prepara- 
tory school of Lawrence Academy, Groton, and thence passed 

118 



Harvard Class of 1853 



to Phillips Exeter Academy. He entered Harvard as Fresh- 
man in 1849. 

After studying law in an office in Boston he entered that 
of Benedict (Erastus P.), Burr & Benedict, leading admiralty 
lawyers, in New York, and opened one on his own account 
before May i, 1857, at 87 Wall Street in that city. He never 
was member of a partnership. He is said to have acquired a 
large practice in the courts of the United States and in all 
the courts of the State of New York. Among his clients were 
many of the leading merchants, such as Ball, Black & Com- 
pany, which firm then occupied in the mercantile world much 
the same place as that of Tiffany & Company at present, as 
were also the leading dry-goods firms of A. T. Stewart & 
Company, Arnold, Constable & Company, Strong, Adriance & 
Company, besides several silk firms and sugar houses. With 
this mercantile practice he represented several corporations. 

He was married August 24, 1858, at Calvary Church, 
New York, to Mary A. Greenwood, daughter of Henry B. 
Greenwood. They had six children. 

His illness dated from a stroke of paralysis received nearly 
five years before his death, and for two years he had suffered 
from a creeping paralysis which at last resulted in his death 
at his house, 163 West 121st Street, on the 14th of August, 
1907. 

A widow and five children, three daughters and two sons, 
survived him. 

Sons: Greenwood, born Pebruary 3, 1864; married Marion 
Winslow, of Brooklyn, New York. 
George G., born June 19, 1874; married Mary Mc- 
Leod, of New York City. 

Daughters: Cornelia, born July 17, 1866; died 1904. 
Martha T., born December 12, 1868. 
Mary L., born February 27, 1871. 
Katherine L.J" born November 6, 1872. 

EDWARD FISKE 

Was the son of Augustus Henry Fiske, of the firm of 
Fiske & Rand, the well-known lawyers at the Suffolk Bar, a 

119 



Harvard Class of 1853 



graduate of the Harvard Class of 1825; and of Hannah 
Rogers Bradford Fiske, the seventh in direct descent from 
William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony, and also 
a descendant of the martyr John Rogers. His grandfather 
was Isaac Fiske of Weston, Massachusetts, a graduate of the 
Class of 1798 of Harvard College. 

Fiske was born in Concord, Massachusetts, September 2, 
1832, and at one time attended the well-known school of Rev. 
Samuel Ripley in Waltham, being one of the younger boys 
attending that school. Afterwards he became a member of 
the Boston Latin School in 1845, from which he entered Har- 
vard College in 1849 ^^^ was graduated in the Class of 1853. 
His part at Commencement was an essay — " Patronage of 
Literature by the English Aristocracy." 

After graduation he studied law in his father's office in 
Boston, and was admitted to the Bar. On account of his 
failing health, and with a view to its restoration, he early 
gave up his law-practice. And for that reason, among others, 
he made a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in a sailing ves- 
sel. Not having obtained the desired relief, he decided to 
adopt an outdoor country life, and he purchased a home in 
Sullivan, Maine, and married, October 13, 1863, Adelaide R. 
Frost. 

He afterward moved to Weston, Massachusetts, his family 
home, where he passed the remainder of his life; he died 
there January 31, 1870, and is buried in that town. 

He had two children, who, with his widow, survived 
him, — 

Edward Fiske, born July 8, 1864; a lawyer in practice in 
Boston; a graduate of Harvard College of the Class of 
1887. 

Susan Hobbs Fiske, born January 23, 1868. 

He had a rare, philosophical turn of mind and was a deep 
and sound thinker, but his extreme sensitiveness and modesty 
and the great shyness of his nature, perhaps made more promi- 
nent by his poor health, prevented the best display of his 
intellectual powers. 



120 



Harvard Class of 1853 



WILLIAM LEONARD GAGE, 

Eldest son of Tenney Kimball and Mary Sophia (Kim- 
ball) Gage, was born July 12, 1832, at London, New 
Hampshire. 

He spent two years at Phillips Academy, Andover, entered 
the Brimmer School, Boston, in the summer of 1845, ^"^ the 
Boston Latin School a year later. At the end of a three years' 
course he entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. During the 
greater part of the Junior year he was absent from Cambridge 
and engaged in teaching, first in Tewksbury and then in pri- 
vate families. He rejoined his class at the beginning of the 
second term Senior. 

His first year after graduation was spent at Jamaica Plain 
in teaching and reading general theology with a view of enter- 
ing the ministry at some time. In the summer of 1855 he was 
appointed Master of the Taunton High School, where he re- 
mained for seven months. He then visited Europe and studied 
at the University of Berlin. Early in 1856 he returned to 
this country. He now continued his theological studies (part 
of the time at Worcester, where he had the advice of the Rev. 
Edward E. Hale), and in June was ordained and settled as 
pastor of the Unitarian Church at Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire. After a service there of two years, he took charge in 
1858 of the Unitarian Church at Marietta, Ohio. But his 
views were now changing, and the publication in 1859 of a 
volume entitled " Trinitarian Sermons Addressed to a Uni- 
tarian Congregation," dedicated to the Rev. Frederic D. Hun- 
tington, afterwards Bishop, marked the close of his connection 
with the Unitarian body. Leaving Marietta in 1859, and con- 
sidering that the Unitarian movement had fulfilled its mis- 
sion, he passed a year in study at the Andover Theological 
Seminary and in Europe. On returning he was installed 
pastor of a Congregational Church at Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, on October 17, i860, and held the position until 
January 21, 1863. From February to October of that year he 
was acting pastor at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and in the 
years 1863 and 1864 at Watertown, Massachusetts. From 
October, 1864, to October, 1866, he was in Europe, and after 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



visiting Edinburgh and London, spent a year and a half on the 
Continent. His work there was the translation of some of Carl 
Ritter's geographical studies. During the remainder of the 
year 1866 and in 1867 he was pastor of a church in Portland, 
Maine, and in the winter of 1866-67 delivered a course of lec- 
tures at the Lowell Institute, Boston, on Biblical Geography. 
On February 25, 1868, he was installed as minister of the 
Pearl Street Church, Hartford, Connecticut, and entered upon 
what proved to be his longest pastorate. During this period 
he visited Europe in the summer of 1868, taking a vacation 
of several weeks; Palestine in the spring of 1875; Europe in 
1881 with his wife, and did a great deal of literary work in 
addition to that of his profession. In the winter of 1875-76 
he gave a second course of Lowell Lectures on " Wayside 
Notes in Palestine." He obtained his dismission at Hartford, 
February 25, 1884. From June in that year to the following 
October he spent his time in England and on the Continent 
of Europe in the company of his wife — his seventh trans- 
atlantic journey, and the first " in which he could go where 
he would and stay as long as he wished." Of this he has left 
his impressions in a little book entitled "A Leisurely Journey." 
On his return he did not again become a settled minister, but 
supplied pulpits in Worcester and Springfield, Massachusetts, 
and in West Winsted, Connecticut. He was considered almost 
an inhabitant of Worcester, where his longest term of service 
was at the Central Church during Dr. Merriam's absence, and 
where he was very popular and always welcomed as a lecturer. 
He is said to have attracted much attention by his lectures on 
Travel, Musical Themes, and on Palestine, and by his " talks " 
on Mendelssohn, with whose family he had had acquaintance. 
But signs of mental disturbance now began to make their 
appearance, and he was at one time at a sanatorium at North- 
ampton. On May 9, 1889, he was taken from his home at 
Hartford to Philadelphia, and the next day admitted to the 
Orthopedic Hospital in that city, suffering from melancholia, 
and oppressed by thoughts of suicide. His fears were but too 
well justified, for on the 31st of the same month he threw hmi- 
self from his window and was instantly killed. 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



Gage married, January 15, 1857, Caroline A., daughter of 
Leonard and Caroline (Parker) Kimball, of Lowell. A 
daughter, Helen, born May 12, 1858, married the Rev. Frank- 
lin S. Hatch. 

He published or edited : 

1859. Trinitarian Sermons Addressed to a Unitarian 

, Congregation. 

1864. Lights in Darkness. 

1867. Life of Carl Ritter. 

1870. Studies in Bible Lands — Verses. 

1873. Three Sermons — The Home of God's People. 

1875. The Isles of Shoals in Summer Time. 
1886. A Leisurely Journey. 

1889. The Salvation of Faust. 
He also edited or translated : 

1864. Ritter's Geographical Studies. 

1865. Steffen's Autobiography, and, in connection with 
Dr. Stuckenberg, Hagenbach's Church History of the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Ritter's Uni- 
versity Lectures on Comparative Geography. 

1867. Francke's Orphan House at Halle; Marie Antoi- 
nette and her Son; and Tischendorf's Origin of the 
Gospels. 

1869. A Historical Atlas. 

1870. Ritter's Erdkunde von Sinai, and Palestina, 4 
vols., 8vo. 

1874. Favorite Hymns in their Original Form. 

1876. Records of a Quiet Life, by Mrs. Hare. 

1876. Maps in Relief of Palestine, Sinai, North America 
and the White Mountains. 

1877. Lampadius' Life of Mendelssohn. 

EDWARD CHIPMAN GUILD, 

Son of Benjamin Guild (H. U. 1804), a Boston lawyer, 
and Eliza (Eliot) Guild, was born at Brookline, Massachu- 
setts, on the 29th of February, 1832. He was of the sixth 
generation from John Guild, of Glasgow, who come to Dedham 
in 1636, from Edmund Quincy, who came to Boston in 1633, 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



from the Rev. Henry Flynt, who came to Boston in 1635, and 
from Governor Thomas Dudley. He was a grandson of the 
eminent merchant Samuel Eliot, and first cousin to his class- 
mate President Eliot. 

He early manifested a decided taste for books and reading, 
which was fostered by all the influences that surrounded him, 
as he had access not only to the Athenaeum but to the fine 
library of his uncle by marriage, George Ticknor — their 
Boston houses communicated — and to the counters of Wil- 
liam Crosby, a bookseller, whom his father had helped to 
establish in business. At home he lived in an atmosphere of 
cultivation and refinement, and enjoyed the acquaintance of 
many of the literary men of the day. He was educated by 
private tutors and at private schools, and entered Harvard as 
Freshman in 1849. His Commencement part was a disquisi- 
tion — " Arabian Libraries." 

On graduating in 1853 Guild had a unique experience in the 
woods of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he was con- 
fined throughout the summer " under middling high pressure,", 
as he says, to engineering work in the Venango Railroad 
Office. A corps of young men slept in the forest and had 
every convenience for camping out, such as good, wholesome 
food, good water, but no clean clothes, wash-bowls, letters, 
or papers to read. When they took passage in a keel-boat 
down the Alleghany River, " rather adapted to the contem- 
plative than the active mood, making 28 miles in 13 hours, 
propelled sometimes by a pair of sweeps at which each of us 
took his turn, and sometimes dragged by a single tow-horse 
through the eddies and deep waters, and sometimes pushed 
over the shallows with a long pole — sleeping, eating, re- 
reading our old letters and papers, watching the white clouds 
drifting over the smooth, rounded Alleghany Hills, an occa- 
sional psalm-tune breaking the silence quite agreeably — we 
were night and day hurrying forward the work on the railroad- 
surveys, and were forced to resort to Cambridge constitutional 
walks at dusk to make up for the confinement." 

He paints himself asleep at midnight, coiled up in his shawl 
before the campfire, no shelter but the woods, and dreaming 

1£4 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of home. Backwoods roughing it did not interfere with his 
health nor disturb his theories of life, though he washed " in 
the spring " and pined for Greek and letter-writing and more 
intelligent conversation. 

Guild began his studies for the Unitarian ministry with the 
Rev. Rufus Ellis and the Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, con- 
tinued them at the Andover Theological Seminary, and passed 
a year at the Harvard Divinity School, taking his place on 
the list of Alumni of 1857. 

He was ordained at Meadville, Pennsylvania, on September 
22, 1859, and was settled at Marietta, Ohio, immediately there- 
after — a position which he held till July 2, i860. There he 
made the acquaintance of the lady whom he married on Octo- 
ber 8, 1 861, Miss Emma M. Cadwallader, daughter of John 
Cadwallader, M.D., and Emma R. (Rhodes) Cadwallader, 
who has since achieved distinction as a sculptor under the 
name of Mrs. Cadwallader-Guild. 

A series of pastorates followed that of Marietta in the fol- 
lowing order: Canton, Massachusetts, September 11, 1861, 
to October i, 1866; Ithaca, New York, October 16, 1866, to 
May I, 1868; Baltimore, Maryland, September, 1869, to Sep- 
tember, 1872; Waltham, Massachusetts, June 8, 1873, to 
April 30, 1880; Brunswick, Maine, from January 11, 1885, to 
July I, 1894; Pembroke, Massachusetts, from July i, 1895, 
to April, 1896. Between the last date and his decease he 
preached at Barnstable and at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 
While resident at Waltham he delivered a course of twelve 
lectures at the Lowell Institute in 1877 on " English Lyric 
Poetry in the Seventeenth Century." 

The interval between his settlement at Waltham and that 
at Brunswick was filled by a visit to Europe and residence 
abroad from June, 1880, to February, 1884. He seems to 
have had no other than family reasons for so long an absence, 
and to have pursued no regular course of study, although it 
would have been impossible for him to be so long intellectually 
idle. In a letter of May 29, 1883, from Munich, after remark- 
ing that a resident abroad finds himself only a looker-on there, 
and has no essential share in the realities of the life which 

125 



Harvard Class of 1853 



goes on about him, he says: " Lhnitless opportunities for self- 
culture are open to me here, but the enthusiasm with which 
I might have availed myself of them twenty years ago is now 
wanting. I have been so long accustomed to working for ends 
which seemed to me at least to be practical and to promise 
some helpful result for others, that I cannot content myself 
with what looks only to accumulation, even though it be of 
material which might at a future time be useful." 

In his life of nine years and a half at Brunswick, Maine, he 
seems to have been regarded almost as a member of the teach- 
ing corps of Bowdoin College. On December 31, 1888, he 
writes: " Behold me still here just at the close of my fourth 
year as Pastor of the little Unitarian Church in this place, that 
church indeed not having much vitality or power, but giving 
me an opportunity of reaching in many ways the undergradu- 
ates of Bowdoin College. I give courses of Sunday evening 
lectures at which they put in a respectable appearance and am 
to give a course at the College in February and March. ... I 
find myself in very pleasant relations with Alpha Delta Phi 
here, an organization of which I was a member at Harvard." 

In the autumn of 1888 and winter of 1888-89 he delivered a 
course of " lessons " on the poetry of Wordsworth, Southey, 
and Coleridge. Of this course he characteristically says : 
" Contrary to all my habits and inclinations in the matter, I 
am to be paid so much a head. It makes me feel frightened 
and anxious from the start. Now I am bound to give them 
their * money's worth ' every time. ... I feel like a fraud." 

While at Brunswick he prepared a " Pedestrian Guide " to 
the neighborhood of Brunswick. An edition of one thousand 
copies was paid for by advertisements, so that he was able to 
give fifty dollars out of the profits to the Historical Society, 
thereby enabling them to publish the first number of their 
Transactions. 

He took much interest in both the Brunswick Public Library 
and the Bowdoin College Library, and gave one of a series of 
free lectures on behalf of the former, in order to bring its 
possibilities more fully before the citizens of Brunswick. The 
sermon delivered in his memory by the Rev. Edward Beecher 

126 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Mason, Pastor of the First Church of Brunswick, was printed 
by the authorities of the library. The following extract gives 
a pleasant picture of him and his activities as they appeared to 
the good people of Brunswick, but few of whom were mem- 
bers of his own congregation : " We recall instances of his 
thoughtf ulness ; we remember how wisely he chose means for 
ends; how he attended this or that drooping plant, dropped 
this or that seed; selected this or that book as suited to the 
needs of one or another friend; served the village improve- 
ment society; worked for the Historical Society; gave wise 
counsel and aid to the Town Library ; assisted young women's 
clubs in their literary studies, and in other unknown ways, so 
lived as to be still living and speaking." The historical society 
mentioned — the Pejapscot Historical Society — voted, on his 
decease, that " During his residence in Brunswick he was an 
active supporter of its interests, giving freely of his time and 
thought to promoting its prosperity and to making it a firm 
and beneficial influence in the community. In doing this he 
was only doing one of the many services prompted by his help- 
ful and unselfish spirit, which won for him the affection of his 
friends and the profound respect and gratitude of the entire 
community." 

In the year 1891 Guild found himself incapacitated for 
work by a singular malady, " afflicting first the muscles and 
afterwards the wits and the will," which lasted until the next 
year. In the winter of 1892-93 he was again at Brunswick, 
and during 1894 he gave a course of lectures on American 
Authors in the Memorial Hall of Bowdoin College. Full of 
misgivings as to their merits himself, he says of them : " I 
cannot put out of sight the fact that three or four hundred 
people, including the faculty, come night after night to listen 
to me for an hour with sustained interest, which would seem 
good evidence that they are not worthless." 

In November, 1899, while preparing to take charge of the 
Unitarian Church at Pittsfield, and although in his usual good 
health, he suffered an attack of apoplexy on the 3d and died 
on the 6th. 

Two daughters survived him, — Eliza, born April 27, 1864, 

127 



Harvard Class of 1853 



married to William Von Wright, an officer in the German 
Army; and Rose, born October 2, 1867, married to Richard 
Fay Parker. 

WILLIAM WARE HALL, 

Son of the Rev. Edward Brooks Hall (H. U. 1820) and 
Harriet (Ware) Hall, was born at Providence, Rhode 
Island, October 2y, 1834. 

He received his early education in Providence, was fitted 
for college in the Providence High School, and entered Har- 
vard in 1849 ^s Freshman. During his Junior year he con- 
ducted a winter school at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. His 
Commencement part was an essay — " English Dramatists 
before Shakespeare." 

After graduation he was engaged in teaching, from January 
to June, 1854, in a small school near Warrenton, Fauquier 
County, Virginia, and from October, 1854, to September, 
1855, he taught private pupils in the city of New York and at 
Newport, Rhode Island. Entering the Harvard Divinity 
School in 1855, he took the full course of three years. Two 
years of travel followed, from September, 1858, to August, 
i860, and, on his return, he entered on the duties of his pro- 
fession, and preached in various places. November 30, 1861, 
he was commissioned First Lieutenant 5th Rhode Island 
Volunteers, and went with Burnside's Expedition to North 
Carolina, taking part in the capture of Roanoke Island, Feb- 
ruary 8, 1862, the battle of New Berne, March 14, 1862, and 
the siege of Fort Macon, which led to its surrender, April 
26, 1862. On August 2 he resigned his commission on account 
of physical disability. In December, 1862, he went to Port 
Royal, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, appointed by the 
Boston Educational Commission as a teacher of negroes, " con- 
trabands " so called, where for a year and a half he did im- 
portant work. His zeal for his work detained him at his post 
too long; his health failed under the pressure of labor which 
he persisted in until he could scarcely stand or speak. He 
reached home, July i, 1864, and died on the 9th of August 
following, unmarried. 

128 



Harvard Class of 1853 



WILLIAM PENN HARDING, 

Son of Isaac and Abigail Young (Higgins) Harding, 
was born at Duxbury, Massachusetts, February 15, 183 1. 

When he was a year old his parents removed to Boston, 
where he received his early education, and in 1846 took a 
Franklin medal on leaving the Endicott Grammar School. 
Having tried initiation into a business life on Milk Street, and 
not finding it to his taste, he resumed the more congenial pur- 
suit of continuing his education, and entered the Cambridge 
High School, January i, 1847, then under Principal Page, by 
whose advice he was induced to prepare himself for college. 
He entered as Freshman in 1849 ^"^ lived at home with his 
parents in Cambridge. On graduation his Commencement 
part was an essay — " The Puritans at Leyden." 

From 1853 to 1S57 h^ was engaged in the study of law in 
the office of Richard F. Fuller, in Boston, and in the year 
1856 at the Harvard Law School, but this study was pursued 
between hours, while he held the position of teacher in the 
Boylston Grammar School in Boston. He was admitted to the 
Suffolk Bar, October 2, 1856, but, before settling down to 
practice, he visited Europe and the West. In 1858 he began 
the practice of his profession at Madison, Wisconsin, but soon 
returned to Boston, and formed a partnership with Alonzo V. 
Lynde, Esq., which was dissolved April 30, 1870. He then 
went to California, and subsequently to Chicago, where he 
opened a law-office and was for a time instructor in the 
Chicago Law School. Becoming interested in the LaGrange 
Iron and Steel Company of Quincy, Illinois, he went there to 
reside, but in 1873 was called back to Boston by the death 
of his father. He now renewed his partnership with Mr. 
Lynde, which lasted until the latter's death in 1899, after 
which he continued to practise alone. He was admitted to 
practice in the Courts of the United States, October 15, 1875. 

He married, December 25, 1861, Abby Anceline, daughter 
of Lewis Morse, of Canton, Massachusetts, the ceremony 
being performed by his classmate. Guild. Three of his chil- 
dren attained maturity — a daughter, Emily Effie, born De- 
cember 14, 1862; a son, Selwyn Lewis (H. U. 1886), born 

129 



Harvard Class of 1853 



April 22, 1864, deceased January 7, 1887; a son, Adalbert 
(H. U. 1894), born February 12, 1872. 

Harding died August 17, 1910. He has put on record his 
strange experience during the earthquake which destroyed the 
city of San Francisco in 1906, and part of it follows: 

San Francisco, April i8th, 1906. 

At a few minutes past 5.00 a. m. we were awakened by an 
unusual shaking and roar as of escaping steam. It lasted from 
two to five minutes, and I jumped up then, and going into the 
hall-way found everybody out and dressing. Nobody seemed 
to know what the trouble was. I asked, " Is this not an earth- 
quake? " Then for the first time it entered the heads of all — 
and there was a universal haste to get out of the hotel. 

I went out on the street; next building to ours, where the 
Young Men's Christian Association is, was seen partly in the 
street; parts of all the surrounding buildings had completely 
collapsed. One church spire on Mission Street, I saw, had 
tumbled to the ground and the church building cracked in the 
middle. In fact in every direction along Market Street, and 
streets branching from it, houses were shaken and ruined. 

It is almost useless to go into small details of the earth- 
quake. Many, many buildings are now on fire on the southerly 
side of Market Street. Engines are striving to keep the fires 
on that side of the street and buildings are being blown up to 
accomplish it. 

The streets are crowded, the squares contain families wath 
their all which could be saved. Hotel-guests are getting their 
trunks out and having them carried to what they regard as a 
safer place. 

No water is running in the pipes. No restaurants here- 
abouts are open. Every one is waiting to see what will hap- 
pen. We have packed our trunks, but at this hour (10.45 
A. M.) have not moved them out of the house. 

The details you will soon get of the earthquake and the 
fire (before this can reach you by mail). I think many lives 
are lost, but by no means so many as would have been lost if 
it had occurred at 7 instead of 5.00 a. m. 

ISO 



Harvard Class of 1853 



The question of food and drink will soon become a serious 
one. Personally your mother and I are not injured, but it 
was a pretty narrow escape. Two smaller shocks have just 
occurred, but from my reading I have told all here that there 
is very little likelihood of any more severe and dangerous ones. 

I have been busy with my observations, and I have noticed 
that all those buildings which were erected with steel frames 
and real stone foundations stood the shaking best. All the 
others within the sphere of the earthquake's grasp are cracked 
or have tumbled into the street. All cars are stopped. All 
electric and other wires are down; the city to-night will be 
in darkness, so far as I can tell. More details I shall have to 
defer until later. I am going to try to get this into the post 
office, which is half a mile away. 

12 o'clock noon. I tried to reach the post office, but it was 
no use. Fire is burning everything on the south side of 
Market Street for a mile. While I am writing this, another 
earthquake shock, or effect of dynamite used in blowing up 
buildings, is felt. 

Everybody jumped up and was startled. The $6,000,000 
City Hall I reached near enough to see the earthquake had 
ruined it beyond description. 

U. S. troops are now parading the streets and keeping the 
mob back from the north side of Market Street and the burn- 
ing district. Desolation and ruin with thousands of poor 
people sitting on whatever little of household goods they were 
able to save, are seen in every street and park space. 

We have not had anything to eat except an orange or two or 
some candy. Restaurants are closed, and no bake-shops are 
to be found open. What will come we cannot foretell as to 
food. The roar of dynamite comes in, every few moments. 

3.00 p. M. I have just come in from a trip on foot of two 
or three miles, to take in the fearful scenes of destruction 
everywhere visible in the streets, which are covered with bricks 
and stones from the wrecked buildings by the force of the 
five-minute quake. Besides the fires have been raging all day 
and hundreds of houses are destroyed. Dynamite may be 
heard toppling over other buildings in the path of the fire. 

131 



Harvard Class of 1853 



The wind as usual is blowing stiff from the ocean, and the 
work of the firemen is to stop the flames crossing North Mar- 
ket Street. Magnificent hotels and stores lie low in the dust 
that were filled yesterday with hundreds of people. Small 
quakes have been felt during the day but have caused no de- 
struction. How many have been killed is not known. The 
principal thing to do is to find something to eat. All bake- 
shops and restaurants are cleaned out or closed. But we shall 
abide our fate in silence and hope to find something by to- 
morrow. Nearly all the people in the hotel have left for 
Golden Park or elsewhere ; but we conclude it is wisest to stick. 
lo.oo p. M. I have made a tour of the burnt district cover- 
ing say two or three miles. Where there were splendid, lofty 
and costly buildings some eighteen stories high, all is now burn- 
ing ruins as far as the eye can reach to the south and east of 
the Main Street as well as to the west beyond the City Hall 
and Hall of Records. Fire is now raging at these two extreme 
ends backwards to the southerly side of Market Street with a 
strong and steady westerly wind blowing. Dynamite is and 
has been freely used all day, but without sufficient water for 
the fire-engines to accomplish a final stoppage of the blaze 
slowly creeping onward. Several tremors of the earth have 
also been felt all through the day, and given cause for anxiety 
for the future. At this hour there is no chance for exit from 
the city — by rail or by ferry — and the only question for 
those at this hotel is where to go in case the fire is not stopped 
in its progress. Consequently all the ladies and children and 
some of the men who are boarding at this hotel are lying down 
on the floor or in chairs trying to get some comfort, if not 
sleep, ready for any emergency until morning discloses the 
situation whether to remain or get out. Another serious out- 
look for the morning is the lack of food. I shall try to get 
some sleep, as no one knows what the next hour may bring 

forth. 

Oakland, April 20th, 1906. 

We have at last reached a place of safety and are in fairly 
good condition, and shall leave for Sacramento with all our 
goods except your mother's parasol, an old coat, a feather 

1S2 



Harvard Class of 1853 



cushion, and a few small things. Details must be spoken 
rather than written, so that I shall skim the narrative till we 
arrive home. The fire got within one street of us, and I went 
out to it and reported to the guests that we must get out at 
once. So all who passed the night without undressing, on 
chairs or on the floor of the reception-room, at once got up 
and started for the street. I got my trunks down to the side- 
walk and left them there. Hastily I formed an opinion that 
the safest place was in the burnt district, contrary to the 
opinion of everybody else, host and guests. The latter took a 
course north. We went south. I took your mother and 
grabbed a stool, and landed her in Market Street, and with 
her bag told her to sit quietly until I returned. I went back to 
the hotel, got the two straps from my valise and fastened 
them on one of the handles of eacl\ trunk. Then I put one 
trunk in the street and pulled it a little over two blocks to 
where your mother was. I returned for the other big trunk 
and tried to pull it, but it was too heavy. Then I hunted up 
a man to help, and both succeeded in pulling that to the same 
place. A policeman came along and told your mother that she 
was in the safest place until the fire reached the block. Then 
it would be better for her to go to the U. S. Mint building, 
which was saved and was in the burnt district. It was so far 
off your mother told me to abandon the trunks. At any rate 
I got her and her bag and my overcoat to the Mint with the 
stool, and I left her in the midst of a crowd of men, women, 
and children, and, securing a man, went back for my trunks 
and, with the two straps and carrying, got both trunks over 
to the Mint. 

We could not sleep, but sat up to watch the City's large 
stores on Market Street and our own and other hotels go up 
in flames. The roughs around us went to the stores and 
brought away liquors, cans of cakes, shoes, trunks, etc., etc., 
whatever they could lay their hands on, and piled them around 
their other belongings. They commenced to drink and became 
noisy. Your mother had to bear it all — with a fortitude 
which I did not expect to see after what we had been through 
during the day and night after the earthquake. 

133 



Harvard Class of 1853 



To-day was one requiring action : First, to get away from 
San Francisco ourselves ; second, to get our trunks to Oakland 
Ferry, where the steamboats were still running across the Bay. 
I accomplished both. The day was hot ; the travel over Market 
Street was partly over bricks which had fallen from the ten 
and twelve-storeyed houses. I found a negro with a wheel- 
barrow and gave him a round sum to get my trunks to the 
Ferry. Your mother undertook to walk it (for there was no 
other way to get there) and she did splendidly to get over the 
piles of fallen bricks, and walk more than a mile. The negro 
hired another man, and they wheeled until they came to the 
bricks, when they untied the trunks and carried them over, and 
then the barrow, and so on until they reached the Ferry. 

GEORGE WALKER HARTWELL, 

Son of George Henry and Eliza Williams (Athearn) 
Hartwell, nephew of Shattuck Hartwell, Tutor at Harvard 
in 1846-50, was born at Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio, on 
September 27, 1833. 

He received his preparatory education at Phillips Academy, 
Exeter, and at the age of sixteen entered Harvard as Sopho- 
more in 1850. Neither of his parents was then living. 

After graduating in 1853 he returned to Cincinnati and took 
a position as clerk for the large firm of Bachelor, Decamp & 
Company, manufacturers of paper and roofing, afterwards 
becoming their bookkeeper, and with the exception of a year 
of military service, continued in that employment until his 
death. He was married, June 17, 1858, to Mary Jane Wilson, 
daughter of Wright and Catherine Wilson, of Cincinnati, and, 
buying property in Wyoming, a suburb about ten miles from 
the city, an easy distance by rail for a business man, he made 
it his home for the rest of his life. 

Of his experience in the Civil War he wrote, in a letter dated 
Cincinnati, June 13, 1865 : " I entered the military service on 
the 25th day of August, 1862, as Private in the 5th Battery, 
Ohio Volunteer Artillery, for three years. Enlisted from 
purely patriotic motives, influenced neither by rank nor pay 
but simply desiring to be a humble actor in the greatest drama 

134< 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ever put upon the world's stage, on which we all are players. 
My business, which was lucrative, and my wife and children, 
dear as the dearest, could not restrain me under a sense of 
duty to God and my country. My deafness, a life infirmity, 
was a great barrier to my success as a soldier, and finally ne- 
cessitated my discharge after a hard service of one year. The 
most memorable military affair I was connected with was the 
pursuit and driving out from Kentucky of the great blower, 
Kirby Smith, after his attempted passage of the Ohio River 
at this place on a projected raid to the Northern Lakes." 

He was long an active member of the Methodist Church of 
Wyoming, and held many offices connected therewith. He 
was a kind and loving husband, a generous and indulgent 
father, always looking forward for the comfort and happiness 
of his family and friends, and ready to give a helping hand to 
the needy and to lift the fallen. 

Hartwell died of Bright's disease at Wyoming, March 12, 
1884, surrounded by his wife and children. A list of them 
follows: Alice Abia, born September 26, i860, married to 
Stanley Matthews McGilliard, of Mt. Healthy, Ohio; Martha 
Walker, born July 6, 1868, married to George Edwin Davis, 
of Cincinnati; George Wright, born April 30, 1870, married 
to Ethel Foy, of Erie, Pennsylvania, where they live; Gail 
Wilson, born March 17, 1872, of Rising Sun, Indiana, mar- 
ried to Bessie Barker, of that place; May Catherine, born 
May 25, 1880. 

ADAMS SHERMAN HILL, 

The only child of Sherman G. and Joanna C. E. (Bal- 
lard) Hill, was born, January 30, 1833, in the city of Bos- 
ton. When five years of age, he was taken by his parents to 
Havana, Cuba, where he passed three or four months. While 
there, his father, who had made the voyage chiefly for his 
health, fell a victim to the yellow fever and very suddenly died. 
Soon after his return his name, which had been previously 
Abijah Adams, was changed by Act of the Legislature to that 
by which he has since been known. In July, 1846, he was left 
an orphan by the death at Worcester of his mother, who had 

135 



Harvard Class of 1853 



long been an invalid. Here he found a home in the family of 
his uncle, the Rev. Alonzo Hill (H. U. 1822), minister of the 
First Unitarian Church, and here through the kindness of 
friends he knew but little of an orphan's troubles. 

He was prepared for college at the Worcester High School, 
and entered the Freshman class at Harvard in 1849, ^t the 
same time with his cousin, Hamilton Alonzo Hill. In college 
he took high rank and gained a reputation for eminent literary 
ability, contributing much to the gayety of society meetings by 
his bright effusions. In 1852 he gained the First Bowdoin 
Prize for an essay on " Herodotus and Thucydides compared 
as Historians." He was chosen Class Orator, and took " En- 
thusiasm " for his subject, and earned high praise from mem- 
bers of the Faculty. His Commencement part on " The 
Friendship of Frederic and Voltaire " afforded him a subject 
well suited to his abilities. 

After graduating, he began the study of law in the office of 
Washburn & Hoar at Worcester, and continued it in the Cam- 
bridge Law School, where he gained the second prize for an 
essay on " The Husband's Power over the Choses in Action 
of the Wife." Taking his LL.B. in 1855, he went to New 
York and was there admitted to the Bar. After passing a few 
weeks in the office of Kent, Eaton, & Davis, he started (in 
1856) on the career of journalism which was to occupy him 
until his return to the University as professor. Beginning as 
law reporter to the " New York Tribune," and afterwards to 
the " Evening Post," he wrote, in addition, editorial articles 
for both papers. In 1858 he became night-editor of the 
" Tribune," but the work was extremely trying and the mode 
of life very damaging to health, so much so that he never 
afterwards fully recovered from its effects. During this 
period he contributed articles to the " Atlantic Monthly " and 
to " Putnam's Magazine " ; and one. which was sent to " All 
the Year Round," then edited by Dickens, brought him an 
autograph letter, expressive of approbation, from the illus- 
trious novelist. His resignation of the night-editorship in 
1859 was followed by a tour of about five months in Europe, 
spent in France, Spain, and Italy. 

136 



Harvard Class of 1853 



In the spring of i860 he returned to this country, but his 
health was still so poor that he was unable to do any work. 
After resting nearly a year at Worcester, he became, in April, 
1861, Washington correspondent of the " New York Tribune," 
an office which he filled until 1863. In that year he associated 
himself with Horace White, late editor-in-chief of the " Chi- 
cago Tribune " and of the " New York Evening Post," and 
Henry Villard, afterwards so widely known from his con- 
nection with railways and for the vicissitudes of his fortunes, 
in an enterprise of which the object was to supply several 
newspapers, including the " Boston Advertiser," the " Spring- 
field Republican," the " Cincinnati Commercial," and the 
" Chicago Tribune," with their Washington correspondence. 
Again his health broke down, the arrangement came to an end, 
and again resort was had to Europe, in 1864, for recovery. 
This visit was passed mostly in Switzerland on the Lake of 
Geneva, and at Paris, and for a part of the time Hill enjoyed 
the companionship of his classmate Cutler. 

Returning to the United States in April, 1865, soon after 
the assassination of Lincoln, he took up his residence at Cam- 
bridge and occupied himself in literary work, writing, among 
other articles, three in the " North American Review " on 
Swift and Sterne and Lamb. 

The early part of the year 1868 was passed at Chicago in 
editorial writing for the " Chicago Tribune." On September 
25 of that year Hill was married at Boston, by the Rev. Ed- 
ward Everett Hale, to Caroline Inches Dehon, daughter of 
William Dehon (H. U. 1833) and his wife, Caroline Maria, 
daughter of Henderson Inches, of Boston. The newly mar- 
ried couple went abroad immediately and passed more than a 
year in Europe. Their first and now the only surviving child, 
Arthur Dehon Hill (LL.B., H. U. 1894) was born at Paris, 
June 25, 1869. On Hill's return to this country in the autumn 
of 1869 he again found employment in Chicago as editor of 
the " Weekly Chicago Tribune," but he resigned the position 
in the spring of 1870. After spending a few months in Spring- 
field, Massachusetts, he went again with his family to Europe, 
where he remained from April, 1871, to June, 1872. On his 

137 



Harvard Class of 1853 



return Hill received an appointment to the Assistant Profes- 
sorship of Rhetoric at Harvard in September, 1872. In 1876 
he was made Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, 
and held that important position until 1904, when he was made 
Professor Emeritus, and received the degree of LL.D. from 
Harvard. In 1902 he was elected President of the Harvard 
Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 

His published works have been : " Principles of Rhetoric," 
1878, revised and enlarged in 1895; "Our English," 1889; 
a pamphlet on punctuation, 1876; "Foundations of Rhet- 
oric," 1892; "Beginnings of Rhetoric and Composition," 
1903. 

After an illness of several weeks Hill succumbed to a stroke 
of apoplexy and died on the morning of Christmas Day, 1910. 
His funeral from the Appleton Chapel was largely attended. 

Editorial Note. — Hill's relations with the daily press, and especially 
with Mr. Greeley and his strange coterie of eccentrics — he was entirely 
sensible of their peculiarities — were unique and interesting. They began 
not long before the War, when a group of able, energetic young men hap- 
pened to come together in Washington — among them Horace White, 
George Bliss, John D. Washburn, Adams and Hamilton Hill, William S. 
Davis — who seemed to have resolved, for the time being at least, upon 
supporting themselves by supplying news to the journals of the day. The 
opposition to the Associated Press, then brought into being, was to be- 
come a news-bureau of national dimensions. It was an organization which 
had the support of Western papers, brought into line by Horace White 
of the " Chicago Tribune " and by Villard, who, in company with Hill, 
specially represented the " New York Tribune," and of the " Boston Ad- 
vertiser " and " Springfield Republican," both largely influenced in joining 
the union by Hill. It was founded in 1864, and incurred at the start the 
bitter enmity of the successful monopoly known as the Associated Press. 
Its relations with public functionaries must of necessity be close, and by 
astute manipulation it was very possible to discover, through methods not 
always patent, the very secrets which the Administration and its depart- 
ments were anxious not to disclose. For news-purveyors, such disclo- 
sures were a stock in trade. Hill's health was never robust and was al- 
ready yielding under the strain of the " Tribune " night-editorship, 
which kept him out of bed until the small hours, when all the midnight 
mails had been delivered and received, and which soon ruined his eye- 
sight. It had already required of him a protracted respite and an absence 
in Europe. The new organization, of which Henry Villard was the nomi- 
nal head — his name was not Villard any more than Voltaire's name was 
Voltaire; both happen to have been associated with Switzerland, and 
Gustavus Hilgard, who, by signing his writings in the Press " Villard," 

138 



Harvard Class of 1853 



had made familiar the name of the little village snuggled under the brow 
of Mont Blanc, found it well to adopt the name as a patronymic — this 
new organization had already ensconced itself in sumptuous quarters on 
Pennsylvania Avenue, where, with a wealth of books and maps and 
magazines and journals, and all the appliances for ease and comfort which 
lubricate that sort of work, its agents awaited, often with Hill in charge 
during the frequent absence of Villard at the front, the visits of the 
unsuspecting statesmen. Nothing was more natural than for a Senator or 
department officer, at the close of a weary day, to drop into this restful 
resort, the very haven of late intelligence, and there refresh himself with 
friendly conversation, with a glance at his home newspapers, with a harm- 
less cigar and a cheering glass of wine. In such environment he was a born 
diplomat, indeed, from whose lips some little hint of the phase of the na- 
tional problem which was next his heart did not escape. And when a dozen 
such visitors followed one another through the rooms, the listener who 
had heard them all had, in the end, got a pretty intimate insight into what 
was going on behind the scenes of the great national drama enacting at the 
Capital, without either of his informers betraying any unpardonable free- 
dom of speech. 

When the dinner hour arrived, the members of this astute brotherhood 
gathered for a common meal — able men every one — and what each of 
them had picked up in the peregrinations of the day, one going to the War 
Department, another to the Committee Rooms of the Capitol or to the 
House or Senate Chamber, another to the White House, another to the 
Navy Yard — all this accumulated mass of facts was merged, around the 
genial board, into a common stock, upon which to base the efforts of an- 
other day, for those who would start forth betimes on their morrow's 
round. Few government departments could withstand the siege for many 
days. In this way, step by step, knowledge reached these headquarters, and 
ultimately the public, which only sworn officials should have had — a frag- 
ment of each fact contributed by one official and another fragment by an- 
other, neither of them intending the least wrongdoing, and neither suspect- 
ing himself of the offence, while all of them joined in the chorus of indig- 
nant protest that went up against " the betrayal of government secrets," 
" giving aid and comfort to the enemy," " the infamous license of the Press 
Gang " — not suspecting that, while they lingered over their cigars and 
village journals, they were disclosing bits which, ingeniously put together, 
had revealed the whole. Hill and his confreres were largely editing, in 
this terrible hour, the press of the nation. 

If you look for an excuse for this questionable straining of the rites of 
hospitality, the perpetrators of it explained their work upon the plea of 
public necessity. The nation, groaning in travail, must have facts, how- 
ever to be obtained. And certainly the congressional victims of the game 
got all they gave in the inspection they enjoyed of a journalism of such 
continental scope, brought together for their benefit, and also in the profit- 
able interchange of thought struck out in the communion of these well- 
stored minds. 

How valuable a bright man like Hill could make himself to the average 
Western Senator was brought home to me one hot forenoon, when my 
cicerone invited me to go with him to a sumptuous senatorial bath-room 
in the basement of the Capitol, that we might refresh ourselves, as Diocle- 

139 



Harvard Class of 1853 



tian might have done, while the Senate dragged its weary session out. 
And how available Hill could make a friend, was brought home to me 
when, one afternoon, after taking tea at the house of Secretary Chase, I 
dropped in, to glance at the papers in the parlors of the News Bureau, and 
he asked me where I had spent the day and what I had picked up. I casu- 
ally said that I had just left the Secretary of the Treasury. "And what 
did he seem to have on his mind? " asked Hill. " Oh, there was only small- 
talk, but, from what he said, I should suppose he has no intention of stay- 
ing long in the Cabinet." The next morning's despatches, circulating 
throughout the country, announced that the personal friends of Mr. Chase 
were well aware that his connection with the Treasury Department would 
be of short duration. Of such material are statements framed which affect 
the value of every day's work, and every barrel of flour, and every promise 
to pay value, on this continent. 

Hill had a liking for self-asserting men of strong personality. He 
seemed to regard them objectively, and to study them as interesting natu- 
ral phenomena, without much regard for their moral, mental, social, or 
financial rating. He sought to scrutinize them as he would queer speci- 
mens generally. When I met him in New York, and we set forth to see 
the town, it was not the newest Picture Gallery or Fifth Avenue Palace, 
nor the reigning dancer or actress or prima donna, nor the last Hotel or 
Play House, that he believed would interest his guest. It was worth some- 
thing to know where good steamed oysters, or good vegetable salads, or 
good pumpkin pies were to be obtained, but others could show the stranger 
that. What interested Hill was the human specimen — the man whose 
mental processes were unique, whose position was strictly of his own 
making, who had made himself count for something, who through good 
report and through evil report had risen out of nothing or against odds, 
whose course, for good or bad, could not be duplicated or predicted. Such 
men were Marshal Rynders, Tom Hyer, Edwin Forrest, " Commodore " 
Vanderbilt, " Prince John " Van Buren, Fernando Wood, and, if we are to 
draw on the other sex, Mrs. Cunningham, awaiting trial for the Burdell 
murder, and Lola Montez, the exile of Bavaria. Such beings he liked to 
observe at short range. They were originals — they were not like the next 
person, nor did they follow a leader like flocks of sheep. That he was a 
newspaper-man furnished him ample excuse for calling on them when he 
would, and he often took me along. Seen under such guidance. New York, 
and especially the " Tribune " Building, was a veritable " Zoo." 

By February, 1858, Hill's editorial position in the " Tribune " had be- 
come so confirmed that Dwight was writing to him, complaining that some 
one had pirated one of Chamberlain's sermons, and ought to be attacked 
for it in the " Tribune." 

There was, at the top of the " Tribune " Building, a large room, amply 
lighted from the roof, which Hill spoke of as the " Bear Pit." This had, 
in the middle of the floor, a large oval table covered with Gazetteers and 
Books of Reference, and about this table was a strange assortment of 
human curiosities, each sitting back to the wall and at single desks all 
facing the table, their costumes, their attitudes, their pseudonyms, their 
whole bearing as unconventional as were their reputations. These were 
their stock in trade. Philander Q. Doesticks, Joaquin Miller, Artemus 
Ward — such were among them. The toper-humorist they boarded out in 

140 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the country under lock and key, with a keeper pledged to prevent his drink- 
ing before he should have produced his weekly column. Among the deni- 
zens of the " Bear Pit " silence was golden. All were busy writing for dear 
life. Nobody evinced any interest in another, or for a moment thought of 
loving his neighbor as himself. Of course there were others outside of 
these making up the " Tribune " staff — sober-minded workers — Ripley, 
Dana, Dr. Beck, never seen in the " Bear Pit," to whom this language does 
not in the least apply. Mr. Greeley was never seen there. The place seemed 
to be given over to a scramble for notoriety. It was the efflorescence of the 
unconventional. 

HAMILTON ALONZO HILL 

Was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, July 2, 1832. He 
was the son of Rev. Alonzo Hill, D.D. (H. U. 1822) and 
Frances M. (Clarke) Hill. 

He was fitted for Harvard College at the Worcester High 
School. After graduation he spent the first year in the Har- 
vard Law School, and then continued his law studies in the 
office of Washburn & Hoar in Worcester. After his admis- 
sion to the Bar, he began the practice of law in Boston. On 
December 16, 1858, he married Mary Eliza, daughter of 
Rev. Chandler Robbins, D.D. (H. U. 1829) and Mary Eliza 
(Frothingham) Robbins. 

At the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Hill was most 
desirous of enlisting, but, prevented at first by paramount duty 
to his family, he was later stricken with a malignant form of 
typhus fever, contracted in Washington, and for many weeks 
his life was despaired of. This permanently impaired his 
strength, and rendered military service impossible. Return to 
the practice of law was also forbidden by his physician. After 
a summer spent abroad, he established in 1865 a firm under 
the name of Horace McMurtrie & Co., which, in 1868, became 
Hill, Clarke & Co., machinery merchants. His specialty was 
the economical use of steam power. 

In 1873 he was appointed a member of the Massachusetts 
Commission to the Vienna Exposition and was also a member 
of the Patent Congress held in that city. In 1874 he published 
the Report of the Commission; also a special report on the 
exhibits of machinery. He was later one of the Commis- 
sioners to organize the Massachusetts department of the Phila- 
delphia Exposition. 

141 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Mr. Hill was one of the charter members of the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers. Besides his contribution to 
the transactions of the Society, he prepared and delivered a 
number of lectures on scientific subjects. 

For purposes of business and recreation he made numerous 
visits to Europe. His enjoyment of travel, his intelligent ap- 
preciation of painting and architecture, and his love of fine 
scenery were exceeded only by his unfailing delight in the wild 
nature of our Maine woods. He was an enthusiastic camper 
and an ingenious woodsman from his Freshman year to the 
last year of his life. His camping experiences, like his rambles 
abroad, were the theme of magazine articles which he took a 
deliberate pleasure in composing. 

Mr. Hill retired from active business in 1894, but practised 
as an expert in steam-power until his health failed. He spent 
much of his time in study and in writing. One of the latest 
and most important of his articles was a commentary on the 
Venezuelan question, entitled " Going Too Far," which was 
published in the " Transcript," December 26, 1895. 

A member of the Second Church until 1874, he afterward 
attended King's Chapel and became a member of its Vestry. 

He died in Boston, March 18, 1899, leaving a widow and an 
only child, Mary Hamilton, the wife of J. Randolph Coolidge, 
Jr. ('83), son of J. Randolph and Julia (Gardner) Coolidge. 

ALFRED HOSMER, 

Oldest child of Alfred and Mary Ann (Graham) Hos- 
MER, was born at Newton Lower Falls, September 11, 1832. 
His father died in 1835. 

He attended the Newton public schools, and in 1840 his 
mother removed to Walpole, New Hampshire, his father's 
native place. He remained at Walpole most of the time from 
November, 1840, until July, 1849, fitting for college — as he 
said, " so far as he was fitted at all, having a part of the time 
an instructor and a part of it being without one." He was 
given on graduating an English oration — " The Influence of 
Physical Causes on the Intellectual Faculties." 

Soon after, he was admitted to the office of his uncle, Dr. 

142 



Harvard Class of 1853 

Hiram Hosmer, of Watertown. After two winters at the lec- 
tures of the Harvard Medical School, and a third year as 
house-officer in the surgical department of the Massachusetts 
General Hospital, he received the degree of M.D., and then 
spent nearly a year in prosecuting his studies at Paris. He 
settled in Watertown in 1857, ^^^ on June 6, i860, married 
Helen Augusta, daughter of Josiah Stickney. He became a 
member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1856; was 
often a member of its council; was its anniversary chairman 
in 1877, and its President in 1882, being the youngest person 
to occupy that seat of honor. He was President of the Boston 
Obstetrical Society for two years, and President of the South 
District Medical Society. He was Medical Examiner of 
Middlesex County, Seventh District, from 1877 until 1884. 
He was among the first to organize the Massachusetts Medico- 
Legal Society, was its first President, and held that office for 
three years. He was post-surgeon at the Watertown Arsenal 
for many years. He was made a Fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1879. I" 1881 he was 
chairman of the State Health Committee and a member of 
the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. He was a 
frequent contributor to medical journals. 

As a citizen of Watertown he was extremely active and 
public-spirited, especially in the field of education. From 1865 
to 1 87 1 he served as chairman on the School Committee. He 
was Trustee of the Public Library from 1868 to 1878, serving 
as secretary of the board two years, and as chairman six 
years. 

He was chosen Trustee of the Watertown Savings Bank in 
1867, and served as President from 1874 to 1890. He was 
the prime-mover in organizing the Watertown Historical So- 
ciety, and was its first President, and held the office until his 
death. He was a member of the First Parish Church of 
Watertown (Unitarian), served for many years as moderator 
at its annual meetings, and was chairman of the Building Com- 
mittee. He supervised the erection of the Unitarian Building, 
built for the Sunday School. 

As a surgeon he was well known throughout the State, and 

143 



Harvard Class of 1853 



was very benevolent to the poor. He owned a bed at the 
Massachusetts General Hospital, and many patients, unable to 
pay for treatment, have occupied it. 

On December 29, 1888, he was stricken with paralysis of 
the brain, brought on by overwork, and became incapacitated 
for any further usefulness. He died at Watertown at his resi- 
dence, Riverside Place, on May 14, 1891. His funeral on the 
1 8th was more largely attended than any for many years. 
His classmates, Eliot, President of the University, and John- 
son, President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, were 
among his pall-bearers. 

He left a widow ; a daughter, Elizabeth Skinner, born June 
5, 1865; and a son, Alfred Graham, born June 7, 1873. 

ANDREW JACKSON HOWE, 

The eldest son of Samuel H. and Elizabeth Hubbard 
(Moore) Howe, was born at Paxton, Massachusetts, April 
14, 1825, in a house where, since 1743, four generations of his 
family have lived. The house was purchased by him in his 
last years and, in accordance with his wishes, was presented 
after his decease to his native town. His father moved to 
Leicester when Howe was but a few years old, and he received 
his early education in its schools, and his preparation for col- 
lege in the Leicester Academy, then under Josiah Clarke, of 
that town. At a very early age he manifested a strong incli- 
nation towards natural science, stimulated by reading the then 
famous " Vestiges of Creation." He was a student of medi- 
cine before going to college, having passed a few months in 
the office of Dr. Calvin Newton, of Worcester, and having at- 
tended a course of lectures in the Medical College of that city. 
He decided to enter college after he was twenty-one, and then 
he found he had no resources but his own to rely on. 

Howe entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. Towards the 
close of the Freshman year, he was one of a party consisting 
of himself, Carroll, Howland, and Sargent, who narrowly 
escaped drowning in Boston Harbor, owing to the capsizing 
of a sailboat. 

After graduating he resumed the study of medicine and in 

U4 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the autumn and winter of 1853-54 attended a course of lec- 
tures at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. The 
summer of 1854, having received the degree of M.D. from the 
Worcester Medical Institution, he spent with Dr. F. H. Kelly, 
of Worcester, and in the winter of 1854-55 took a second 
course of lectures at the Crosby Street College in New York, 
and was present at all the surgical clinics in the city. In the 
spring he delivered a course of lectures on anatomy at the 
Worcester Medical Institution, and during the summer took 
charge of the practice of Dr. Walter Burnham, of Lowell, 
which gave him large opportunities for surgical instruction. 

He spent another winter, 1855-56, among the hospitals of 
New York, where he took particular care to advance his surgi- 
cal knowledge. In the spring of 1856 he opened an office on 
Front Street in Worcester, and entered upon a successful 
practice. 

In 1857 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Sur- 
gery in the Cincinnati Medical College, which led to his select- 
ing that city as a place of permanent settlement. In 1863 he 
was appointed to the chair of Anatomy in the Eclectic Medical 
Institute of Cincinnati, and in 1871 was made Professor of 
Surgery in the same institution — a position which he held 
during his life. Surgery now became the main interest of 
his pursuit, and he practised it with great success, maintaining 
a high reputation as an operator. He travelled extensively in 
the exercise of his profession, and answered surgical calls in 
twenty different States. He wrote for publication early in his 
professional life. His first book was " Fractures and Disloca- 
tions," 1870. It was followed by "The Art and Science of 
Surgery " ; by " A Manual of Eye and Ear Surgery," and 
by " Operative Gynaecology," 1890. A collection of " Miscel- 
laneous Papers," mostly on subjects not strictly professional 
but of scientific or literary interest, was published by his 
widow after his death. He designed a large portion of the 
cuts in his books and papers. He wrote, monthly, a surgical 
article and some editorial miscellaneous matter for the " Ec- 
lectic Medical Journal." He was a member of various Eclectic 
Organizations; of the Ohio State, and the National Medical, 

145 



Harvard Class of 1852 



Associations, and later of the Eclectic Medical Society of 
Cincinnati. In 1882 he was elected President of the National 
Medical Association at its annual meeting in New Haven. He 
was one of the most prominent members of the Cincinnati 
Society of Natural History, and many of his *' Miscellane- 
ous Papers " on such subjects as " Darwinism," " Heredity," 
" Depressions in the Earth's Surface," and " The Autopsy of 
an Elephant," were read before it. He was also a member of 
the University Club, the Cuvier Club, and the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. 

One visit to Europe and one to the Pacific coast, with an 
occasional brief sojourn in his native State, comprise almost 
all of his vacations. 

Dr. Howe was interested in religious movements and fre- 
quently assisted, according to his means, different organiza- 
tions. The body with which he felt the closest ties was the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Howe died suddenly, on January 16, 1892, of blood poison- 
ing, the result of a carbuncle. He was married, on February 
8, 1858, to Georgiana, daughter of George S. Lakin, of Pax- 
ton, Massachusetts, but had no children. His wife survived 
him. 

EDWARD ROWLAND, 

Son of Benjamin Jenkins and Hannah (Clark) How- 
land, was born in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, on 
the 15th of September, 1832. He was the ninth descendant 
in a direct line from John Howland wdio came over in the 
" Mayflower." 

Born in the South of Northern parents, he could not call 
himself either a Northerner or a Southerner. In 1846 his 
family removed to Boston. While there he was placed for a 
year in a school at Jamaica Plain kept by Charles U. Green, 
and for the rest of the time in the Hopkins Classical School 
at Cambridge. He then went to New York City, expecting 
to study a year before entering Harvard, and, finding himself 
fitted for the New York University, he passed " a triumphant 
examination upon books he had never read," and became a 

146 



Harvard Class of 185^ 



member of the Class of 1852 in that institution. With it 
he remained for a year and a half. His intention was to join 
the Class of 1853 at Cambridge at the beginning of the second 
term Freshman, but he was prevented by sickness from leav- 
ing New York before the middle of April, 1850, when he 
passed through the formalities necessary to make him a 
member of it. 

He seemed to enjoy college life, was extremely popular with 
all, was elected to the most desirable societies, the Hasty Pud- 
ding and the Alpha Delta Phi, and it was probably in an un- 
wonted moment of depression that he wrote in the class-book 
on leaving, that " he was tired of the irksome routine and 
disgusted with the petty restraints of college life; he looked 
forward with pleasure to its end," but he said on graduation 
that " of his class he should always retain the most pleasant 
associations and that the years spent in company with its 
members had been the most improving and agreeable of his 
life." 

Howland's career in after life was unusual. While in col- 
lege his tastes and ideas were conservative and conventional 
and he looked forward to architecture as a profession, but in 
course of time he abandoned all this, passed from Bohemian 
journalism to communistic theories, and finally died a member 
of a socialist community in Mexico. After representing for 
seven years his father, a prominent cotton-broker of Wall 
Street, known down in town as " old Ben Howland," and 
being located at different times at Memphis, New Orleans, 
Boston, and elsewhere, he took up literary work, for which he 
always had a taste, and with others established the " Saturday 
Press," founded October 29, 1858, which existed for about 
three years. Its editor was Henry Clapp, a man deeply in- 
terested in the doctrines of Charles Fourier. William Winter 
in his " Old Friends " has described the resort of the Bohe- 
mians of 1859-60, known as " Pfafif's Cave," beneath the side- 
walk of Broadway, where Clapp, who subsisted chiefly on 
coffee and tobacco, presided. Winter declares that no literary 
circle comparable with the Bohemian group of that period, in 
ardor of genius, variety of character, and singularity of 

147 



Harvard Class of 1853 



achievement, has since existed in New York, nor has any 
group of writers in our country been so ignorantly misrepre- 
sented and maligned. But Winter, who mentions Rowland's 
name, has nothing special to say about him. 

Rowland put all the money he had into the " Saturday 
Press," and even sold a fine collection of books to feed the 
fires of that enterprise. During this period he became an 
indefatigable student of Fourier's works, and to this study, 
more than to all other sources combined, were due his social- 
istic convictions. 

After the collapse of the " Saturday Press " he became 
connected with the old bookselling firm of Philes & Company, 
and went abroad many times searching for and buying old 
books, and making trips to Europe to attend book-auctions. 
The above company published at that time a periodical called 
" The Philobiblion." Its catalogue and bulletin contained a 
great deal of valuable information upon rare books, furnished 
largely by Rowland. The firm mentioned went down, like 
many others, soon after the beginning of the Civil War. In 
the meantime he had collected for himself a library of curious 
books of over two thousand volumes, among which may be 
specially noted a presentation copy of the Bihliotheca Ameri- 
cana V etustissima — a history and elaborate description, with 
facsimiles of texts and illustrations, of all works relating to 
America between 1492 and 1551, of which only five hundred 
copies were printed, with ten extra copies in quarto for private 
distribution. Besides this very costly work the collection con- 
tained books printed by Aldus, Elzevir, Baskerville, and Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 

Rowland wrote much anonymously for newspapers and 
magazines, but during his early life had the greatest aversion 
to seeing his name in print. For years he contributed matter 
to New York dailies, especially to the " Daily Graphic," as 
well as jokes and jeux d' esprit to the comic papers. 

Rowland's literary life was passed in the city of New York; 
in Europe ; at Rammonton, New Jersey ; with a residence of 
some years in Europe, including St. John's Wood, London, 
the Arundel Rotel in the Strand, the outskirts of Amster- 

148 



Harvard Class of 1853 



dam and elsewhere. During this period, in 1865, he married 
in Scotland Mrs. Marie Stevens-Case, a lady of literary ac- 
complishments and congenial tastes, and the union seemed to 
have been happy beyond the average matrimonial experience. 
She was the translator of a Fourierite work by Godin, and 
the author of several novels, and shared all her husband's 
socialistic enthusiasms. Their wedding journey through Scot- 
land with Scott for a guide-book was especially delightful. 

Life in New Jersey formed a distinct episode in Rowland's 
life. It was begun in Hammonton, in what Mrs. Rowland 
has called a " barn," hired of friends, but which must have 
been more or less adapted for a dwelling-house, for Mr. and 
Mrs. Rowland not only lived in it, but at one time kept school 
and entertained company there. Later a home was bought 
on high ground, near the village of Rammonton, consisting 
of twenty-two acres of land and a house. For nearly twenty- 
three years they worked there, built additions to the house, a 
fine barn, and many other valuable improvements. This was 
the abode christened " Casa Tonti," where Mrs. Rowland says 
were passed the most glorious days of their life, and which 
formed the subject of a short story written by her, published 
in " Harper's Magazine " for March, 1883. The house was 
profusely decorated by the hand of the owner with illuminated 
inscriptions on walls and doors, mostly quotations from so- 
cialistic and other authors, such as Fourier's celebrated " At- 
tractions are proportional to Destinies." One door was nearly 
covered by the propositions of Rerbert Spencer. On the front 
of the veranda was printed in large red letters the word 
SALVE! But the most pleasant in effect of all the mottoes 
was one from the Persian, done with especial brilliancy, so 
placed as to meet the eye of a guest sitting opposite, " Of 
all men thy guest is the superior." Rorticulture and pomi- 
culture were carried on at " Casa Tonti " without much view 
to commercial profit but to the great satisfaction of the pro- 
prietors. Sympathetic guests frequently visited them. 

While at New York and " Casa Tonti " Rowland wrote 
the " Life of General Grant," " Progress of Industry in the 
United States," " Banks and Banking," " Railroads in Europe 

149 



Harvard Class of 1853 



and America," " The Treasury," " Modern and Antique Finan- 
cial Methods." 

When the order called " The Patrons of Husbandry," popu- 
larly known as the " Granger Movement," was inaugurated, 
Rowland aided it with enthusiasm. It was to a certain extent 
a secret society with its lodges, called granges, its initiations 
and ritual. The first Grange of South Jersey was organized 
at " Casa Tonti " and its first members were initiated there. 
Howland was chosen Master of the New Jersey State Grange 
and represented it in the seventh annual meeting of the Na- 
tional Grange at St. Louis, in December, 1873. The object 
of the society was the freedom of the agricultural producer 
from all the ills he had to endure — from monopolies of all 
kinds, railroads, protectionist tariffs, professional politicians, 
and damaging legislation generally. But, being more of a 
scholar and thinker than a practised moderator of a meeting, 
he sometimes found it difficult to sustain the latter character. 
However he got along somehow, and everybody loved him. 

Howland also became much interested in the " greenback " 
movement, and wrote on its behalf for the journals which 
advocated " fiat money." His theory was that from the barter 
of savages the normal development is from the wholly mate- 
rial (intrinsic value) up to the wholly symbolic, its base being 
the honor and good faith of the Commonwealth issuing it. 

Among Howland's intimate friends and visitors were Al- 
bert Brisbane, whose wealth enabled him to promote the so- 
cialist cause by procuring the translation of some of Fourier's 
works, and Albert K. Owen, whose enthusiasm for a projected 
cooperative colony in Sinaloa, Mexico, attracted Howland's 
interest and led to the last enterprise of his life. The " Credit 
Foncier " was an institution of Mr. Owen's founding, among 
the many projects of his active mind. To leave his home in 
New Jersey, when no longer young, and to transport himself 
to an unknown region on the other side of the continent and 
under new social conditions, would have daunted a mind less 
sanguine than Howland's. Added to other drawbacks, his 
health was now failing; he walked with difficulty, and suf- 
fered from weakness, his malady not being fully understood 

150 



Harvard Class of 1853 



by his physicians. But the great undertaking was finally re- 
solved upon, and there came a sad farewell to the much-loved 
" Casa Tonti," and Mr. and Mrs. Rowland took leave of 
their circle of friends on the evening of May lo, 1888, at 
New York. The journey was by rail to Guaymas on the Gulf 
of California, where they were delayed three months, waiting 
for freight and through ignorance of custom-house require- 
ments. At last they got away from Guaymas and were nine 
days on the water, stayed by contrary winds, before reaching 
their destination, — the bay and town of Topolobampo. How- 
land's decline was so perfectly regular and gradual that, up 
to the time of an attack at Guaymas, there were no markings 
or stations in the disease. After that there were several, but 
at long intervals. The last, from which he could not rally, 
occurred in December, 1890, and on Christmas morning fol- 
lowing he breathed his last at that part of the settlement, called 
" La Logia," devoted to farm and orchard work. During his 
life in Sinaloa his interest in the movement was unabated, and 
he wrote occasionally for the " Credit Foncier of Sinaloa," the 
newspaper organ of the Society, sometimes producing verse 
of a quality quite above the average. The following letter 
from him to the Class Secretary will give an idea of his 
mental attitude towards the future of the world, and his re- 
gard for the old friends of his youth. Rowland had no 
children. 

La Logia, Sinaloa, Mexico, February 21, 1889. 
My dear Shaw: 

To my delighted surprise I received, by the last mail we had 
from the North, yours dated February 6th, 1889. This shows 
the modern era as well as a page of reflection could do. When I 
came to dating this, which I did from a Boston calendar the pub- 
lisher of which kindly sent me a package of, the remarkable pro- 
pinquity, if I may be allowed the word, struck me more forcibly 
than ever before. You see less than a month separated us, though 
we are thousands of miles apart. It has been constantly a matter 
of great regret to me that I have so entirely lost the association 
(I have not lost the memory) of my class-mates. Here in Sin- 
aloa I have given practical proof that I still belong to the human 
family, and that, though circumstances have led us apart, the 

151 



Harvard Class of 1853 



college association I was fortunate enough to have enjoyed so 
long with yourself and others still remains one of the chiefest 
memories I value. I still have the set of photographs of the class, 
though I have left them in charge of Mrs. Edward Rowland, a 
person you have never had the pleasure of meeting, but who is 
in the interest of the " Credit Foncier," the newspaper organ of 
the society to which we are both devoted, and who remains at 
Topolobampo, where it is published. All this is probably San- 
scrit to you. But I shall take the pleasant liberty of sending you 
copies of the sheet of which she is the editor, and from which 
you can get more information of the reasons that led us here than 
I could give you by writing a volume. Its title is the " Credit 
Foncier of Sinaloa," for the system of holding land only for 
natural use and then making such use of its products as shall put 
them to the use intended by nature, the support of human life. 
It is the abuse of this system which we hold has produced the 
poverty of the world. There is an abundance produced for all, 
but the monopoly of a part produced leads to the destitution of 
the large mass of every civilized nation. The stories of the in- 
dustry of all nations show that this condition has always prevailed. 
It did in Rome and in Greece. But there as here charity was the 
only help proposed. The " Credit Foncier," a society owned in 
New York, with a branch here, by the promise of integral coop- 
eration claims it can be stopped. And now comes the bicycle 
railroad which runs on a single rail and will go easily one hundred 
miles an hour. Owen has gone to England. The crisis is upon 
us and I shall be there. I am tired and must close. Write me if 
you get this and I will repeat it. 

Yours truly, 

Edward Howland. 

CHARLES HENRY HURD, 

Son of John and Persis (Hutchins) Kurd, was bom 
at Charlestov^rn, Massachusetts, on the 7th of January, 

1833. 

After attending schools in Charlestown he entered the Bos- 
ton Latin School in 1844, and Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 
He was one of the crew of the " Oneida " that rowed and 
won in the first Harvard- Yale boat-race on August 3, 1852, 
a race memorable as the first American intercollegiate re- 

152 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gatta. His part at Commencement was an essay — "Bishop 
Hall's Satires." 

After graduation he passed a year at the Harvard Law 
School, and continued his legal studies at Dover, New Hamp- 
shire, and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar on May 28, 1856. 
He was associated in practice for a short time with G. Wash- 
ington Warren, and later with his classmate, Charles J. Paine. 
On May 26, 1859, he was married to Julia, daughter of Elisha 
and Eunice (Lombard) Edwards, of Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, and sister of the distinguished General Oliver Edwards. 

His partner left him to take a commission in a Massachu- 
setts regiment in 1861, and it was his desire to serve his 
country at the first call for troops, but he yielded to the en- 
treaties of his wife and the claims of his infant daughters 
until those of his country became too strong for love of home 
to resist. At a meeting held in Charlestown early in July, 
1862, he signed his name as a volunteer, declaring his inten- 
tion to go as a private until he had won the right to a com- 
mission. His was eminently a soldierly character. He had 
a strong body and a noble spirit. He bore all the hardships 
of war cheerfully and wore all his honors with great modesty. 
He was not allowed to go as a private. He declined the offer 
of a captaincy and accepted the commission of First Lieuten- 
ant in the 3 2d Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers by 
reason only of the urgent need of educated officers. Part of 
what afterwards constituted that regiment had been sent to 
the front in May, and had joined the Army of the Potomac 
at Harrison's Landing after the seven days' Peninsular fight- 
ing. The battalion of three companies, Hurd's being Com- 
pany I, joined the others at the end of Pope's campaign on 
September 3. For the rest of the year 1862 he shared the 
fortunes of the 32d. During the movement northward to 
meet Lee's first invasion he had hard marching enough, and 
the name of Antietam heads the list of his battles, though his 
regiment, which was in the ist Division of Fitz-John Porter's 
5th Army Corps, was not called into action on that eventful 
day, but remained spectators of the fighting from the further 
side of the river. The army followed Lee into Virginia; 

153 



Harvard Class of 1853 



McClellan was superseded by Burnside, under whose auspices 
occurred, on December 13, 1862, what has been called " the 
horror of Fredericksburg," " a battle without plan and with- 
out result." The 32d was, in Hurd's words, " no longer the 
bloodless but the gallant and bloody " regiment. It was led 
into the hottest of the fight and up to within forty yards of 
the Confederate batteries at the stone wall, but none of its 
officers failed in his duty. In the opinion of the brigade 
commander the safety of the army depended upon their 
holding the position. Hurd re-crossed the Rappahannock 
unhurt. 

At the beginning of the year 1863 Hurd was transferred 
from the 32d to become Assistant Adjutant-General, with the 
rank of Captain, on the staff of General David Allan Russell, 
commanding the 3d Brigade of the ist Division of Sedgwick's 
6th Army Corps, whom he joined on January 12, and whom 
he learned to regard with enthusiastic admiration. In the 
fighting about Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863, Sedgwick's 
6th Corps coming up from the former battle-ground of Fred- 
ericksburg stormed Marye's Heights, the most successful oper- 
ation of that campaign, but did not succeed in drawing the 
enemy from Salem Church. Owing to Hooker's failure to 
cooperate as was expected, the 6th Corps was obliged to shift 
for itself, and Sedgwick skilfully extricated himself from a 
perilous position. In Hurd's record his share in the Chancel- 
lorsville campaign is noted under the head of the 2d Battle 
of Fredericksburg and Salem Heights. There was much re- 
semblance between Hurd's experience in 1862 and that in 
1863; a return to the North of the Potomac to meet Lee's 
second invasion, presence at a great battle without active par- 
ticipation in it, a pursuit of Lee's army back into Virginia, 
and hard fighting at the end of the year. Sedgwick's Corps 
arrived at Gettysburg on the second day of July and of the 
battle, after an exhausting march from Manchester of more 
than thirty miles, and was held in reserve that night. The 
next day Russell's brigade was placed in position at the left 
of the Union line and was exposed to the fire of the enemy 
but without fighting, the whole loss to the brigade being two 

154, 



Harvard Class of 1853 



wounded. It was employed in following up Lee on the 5th, 
and the two skirmishes of Fairfield and Funkstown appear 
in the list of Kurd's engagements. In November he found 
himself again on the banks of the Rappahannock, where he 
had the good fortune to take part in one of the most brilliant 
and most completely successful affairs of the war, the assault 
and capture of the Confederate redoubts and rifle-pits at Rap- 
pahannock Station, in which 103 officers, 1200 enlisted men, 
1225 stand of arms and 8 battle-flags were taken. For his 
services on this occasion he gained honorable mention. The 
general order congratulating the officers and soldiers was 
written by him. Towards the end of the month preparations 
were making to attack Lee in his position on Mine Run, south 
of the Rapidan, and on the 27th Russell's brigade was hur- 
ried forward to the assistance of French's 3d Corps, which 
had met with serious resistance near a place called Locust 
Grove Point. Its arrival relieved the 3d Corps, the whole 
attempt was abandoned, and the army soon found itself back 
in winter quarters on the other side of the Rapidan. The 
attempt adds the name of Mine Run to the list of Kurd's 
battles. 

In 1864 fortune was not to be so propitious to Kurd. Kav- 
ing got safely through the earlier engagements in Grant's 
Wilderness campaign, he was, towards the end of the day of 
May 12 at Spottsylvania Court Kouse, seriously and danger- 
ously wounded by a minie ball in the left thigh, which dis- 
abled him for the rest of the year. Ke had been sent to 
order up a regiment, had dismounted in search of the colonel, 
and found him with difficulty lying covered up among his 
exhausted men. The bullet was promptly extracted, and he 
was advised by the surgeon to get home as fast as possible 
in preference to going into hospital at Washington. Assisted 
by his faithful colored servant, Adam, he reached home at 
Charlestown suffering intensely. By the most assiduous at- 
tention he was restored to health and strength, though for 
the rest of his life he continued to feel the effects of the 
wound. Ke had had previous leaves of absence on the oc- 
casion of his father's death, and for the purpose of raising 

155 



Harvard Class of 1853 



a band for General Russell's brigade. During his absence 
from the army his friend, General Russell, was killed at the 
battle of Opequan in the Shenandoah Valley. 

In March, 1865, he arrived in Virginia, and on the 25th 
reported to General Weitzel, commanding the 25th Army 
Corps of the Army of the James, at headquarters on the 
north side of that river. The reputation which he had ac- 
quired is shown in the demand made by two distinguished 
officers for the benefit of his services. General John W. 
Turner, commanding the so-called " Independent Division " 
of the 24th Army Corps, had heard of him, and wrote to 
Weitzel that he was just the sort of man he wanted at once 
to straighten out his division. " Captain," said Weitzel to 
Hurd, " I hate to lose you from my corps, for I too know 
your antecedents and want you and need you, and shall tell 
Turner how much I am sacrificing to friendship." In this 
way he became Assistant Adjutant to Turner. Operations 
against the defences of Petersburg were just beginning. The 
James was crossed on the 27th. Of the assault and capture 
of Fort Gregg, the last of the Confederate strongholds, on 
April 2, under a terrific fire, Hurd maintained that the credit 
was due, all reports to the contrary notwithstanding, to 
Foster's and his own divisions, the latter having planted the 
first flag on the ramparts. Petersburg having been evacuated, 
the race with Lee's broken army to the westward followed, 
in the course of which Hurd had a hairbreadth escape, a 
spherical case bursting just over his head and killing a man 
within ten feet of him. On the 9th of April the division 
arrived on the brow of the hill overlooking Appomattox 
Court House, where negotiations between Grant and Lee were 
going on. By four in the afternoon all anxiety was removed 
by the announcement that Lee had surrendered. " This glori- 
ous issue," he wrote to his wife, " crowned all our labors, 
our anxieties, fighting, marching, sleeplessness, and hunger." 
Elsewhere he said that he would have gladly sacrificed life 
or health to gain that result. While in camp at Richmond 
he had his hands full of business, and was brevetted Major 
of Volunteers for gallant and meritorious conduct, as of March 

156 



Harvard Class of 1853 



13, and honorably mustered out on the 19th of September 
following. 

For the immediate support of his family he engaged in the 
leather business in Boston, but this proving unsatisfactory, 
he in 1870 or 1871 resumed the practice of the law at Boston 
and continued in it until his death, which occurred from 
pleuro-pneumonia after four days' illness, at Dorchester, April 

Hurd was a frequent contributor to the press. He was fond 
of translating Horace and German poetry, and occasionally 
wrote original verses which show much tenderness of feeling. 
A poem entitled " My Reb Canteen " commemorates an in- 
cident of the war, — his dismounting to give a dying Con- 
federate soldier water from his own canteen, the soldier's 
death, and the preservation of the dead man's canteen as a 
relic hanging by his own. He sometimes indulged in a lit- 
erary hoax, and that on the " Punishments of the Aztecs," 
the wildest of fictions, had a newspaper success. 

A friend writing at the time of his decease described him 
as one of the manliest of men. " He was made with a splen- 
did physical form, his very presence giving assurance of regal 
health and high mental vigor. How vigorously he threw 
away to every one of the exuberance of that manly nature! 
His heart and hand were always open. And yet not many 
knew him, for he hid his best life in his reverential love for 
kindred and household." He was indeed generous to a fault, 
both in money and in gratuitous service. 

Julia Edwards Hurd, widow of Charles H. Hurd, died at 
Dorchester, September 24, 191 1. Their children were: Susan 
Barnes, born February 28, i860; Louisa Ripley, born April 
29, 1861; Charles Russell, born September 30, 1864; Julia 
Edwards, born September 16, 1865; Grace, born March 10, 
1867; Oliver Edwards, born June 4, 1868; Benjamin, born 
February 25, 1870; Harold, born December 17, 1872. 

JOHN WILLSON HUTCHINS, 

Son of Ezra C. and Augusta (St. Clair) Hutchins, 
was born at Portland, Maine, July 28, 1832. 

157. 



Harvard Class of 1853 



He entered Harvard from the Boston Latin School, as 
Freshman, in 1849. 

On graduation he studied medicine with Dr. Simon Whit- 
ney, of Framingham, and at the Harvard Medical School, 
where he received the degree of M.D. in 1858. In the same 
year he settled at Mil ford, Massachusetts. He removed to 
South Framingham in 1861, lived there for ten years, and 
built up a large and successful practice. During this period 
he travelled in Europe and spent several months in visiting 
hospitals in the study of his profession. 

In 1871, being desirous of a larger field, he left Framing- 
ham for Chicago, to the great regret of his patients and the 
public. At Chicago he was very successful as a general prac- 
titioner. His skill in diagnosis was remarkable, and he rarely 
made a mistake. He was for many years Superintendent of 
the Central Free Dispensary connected with the Rush Medical 
College. He was a modest and retiring man, but one who 
gained the love and confidence of his patients to a great degree. 
He died at his home in Chicago, of apoplexy, on August 7, 
1890, after an illness of a few hours. 

Hutchins was married at Framingham, on December i, 
1859, to Anna L., daughter of Lawson Kingsbury. He left 
a widow and two children : Alice Augusta, born April 25, 
1862, married October 25, 1883, to Herman D. Cable; Helen 
Louise, born June 28, 1869, married April 25, 1895, to Francis 
Sargent Shaw. 

GEORGE SMITH HYDE, 

Son of Michael Smith and Maria (Parker) Hyde, 
was born at Boston on June 29, 1831. 

After preliminary education in the Franklin Grammar 
School of Boston, where he gained a Franklin Medal, he en- 
tered the Boston Latin School in 1844, and took the complete 
course of five years. He was admitted to the Freshman Class 
at Harvard in 1849. His part at Commencement was a Latin 
oration, " De Cultu et Humanitate Byzantinorum." He began 
the study of medicine in the Harvard Medical School imme- 
diately after graduating, and during the last year of study 

158 



Harvard Class of 1853 



therein filled the situation of house-pupil in the Massachusetts 
General Hospital, taking his degree of M.D. in 1856. 

Soon after leaving the hospital he accepted the place of 
ship's doctor on one of Enoch Train's ships, sailing from 
Boston to Liverpool for the purpose of bringing over immi- 
grants. On his return he opened an office at the corner of 
Washington and Camden Streets, and commenced a practice 
which lasted nearly half a century, continuing it until within 
two years before his death, when he gave up work. He was 
for forty years the attendant physician at the St. Vincent's 
Orphan Asylum, where he was much beloved by those in 
charge. He was much interested in charitable work, espe- 
cially that of the Salvation Army, Boston Industrial Mission, 
North End Mission, and the Board of Charities. He was 
liberal with his professional services to those unable to pay 
for them and, in not a few cases, furnished them with medi- 
cines at his own expense. 

Dr. Hyde was a member of the Massachusetts and Ameri- 
can Medical Societies and of the Boston Latin School 
Association. 

After suffering for several years from an affection of the 
heart. Dr. Hyde died somewhat suddenly from a severe at- 
tack of this disease, December 11, 1905. His funeral, which 
was largely attended, took place on the i6th; his remains were 
cremated at Forest Hills Cemetery and his ashes there buried. 

Dr. Hyde was never married. 

By his will Dr. Hyde gave $50,000, subject to two life 
interests, to Harvard College, for the benefit of the Medical 
School. 

SAMUEL EDWIN IRESON, 

Son of Samuel Jenks and Sarah (Johnson) Ireson, 
was born at Lynn, Massachusetts, on October 22, 1830. 

After the usual routine of infant and preparatory schools, 
he was placed under the care and instruction of Jacob Batchel- 
der, a graduate of Dartmouth, at that time Principal of the 
Lynn Academy. Fitted by his instructions, Ireson entered 
Harvard as Freshman in 1848. He remained with the Class 

159 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of 1852 until the second term of the Sophomore year, and 
soon after began the study of law at Boston in the office of 
Messrs. Josiah W. Hubbard and Isaac Story, Jr. At the end 
of a year, reflecting on the importance of better preparation 
for the future, and of the opportunity he was neglecting, he 
hastily prepared to reenter college, and was admitted, on 
September 2, 1852, to membership in the Class of 1853, then 
at the commencement of its Senior year. 

After his graduation Ireson resumed his legal studies and 
was admitted to the Bar October 7, 1854. He continued to 
reside at Lynn, but practised law at Boston. In 1855 he was 
Assistant Clerk of the Police Court of Boston. He was elected 
City Solicitor of Lynn for the years 1872, 1873, 1874, and 
1875, and died in office on September 7 of the last-named 
year. 

On April 27, 1874, he married Ellen, daughter of Isaiah 
Wheeler, of Lynn. His wife survived him, but he left no 
children. She died in 1903. 

The following is taken from an editorial notice in the 
"Lynn Transcript" of September 11, 1875: 

" Obituary. — We are pained to have to announce the fact, 
not wholly unexpected, of the decease of our worthy and 
faithful City Solicitor, S. Edwin Ireson, Esq., which happened 
at his residence on Tuesday last. A somewhat long acquaint- 
ance with Mr. Ireson has sufficed to raise in our minds a very 
deep sense of his talent and excellence. He was truly a man 
who, with only the boon of a longer and more healthful life, 
would beyond doubt have made himself a name among the 
sons of Lynn yet more high and honorable than he has. He 
was educated at Harvard, studied law in Boston, and prac- 
tised there some years before returning, professionally, to 
this, his native city. For several years he has been Solicitor 
to the City Government, and, with no offence to any, we may 
say that his faithful and very successful conduct of the public 
business has won him peculiar praise. But he has early de- 
veloped the consumptive tendency of his family, and, though 
struggling with it by voyages abroad and faithful treatment 
at home, it has finally mastered him, as so many precious 

160 



Harvard Class of 1853 



lives beside. He was the only son of Samuel J. Ireson, Esq., 
of the City Council of 1850, and he leaves a widow but no 
family. His age was forty-four years." 

CHARLES JACOBS, 

Son of Sylvester and Cynthia (Stearns) Jacobs, was 
born at Groton, Massachusetts, June 18, 1832. He was a de- 
scendant from Nicholas Jacobs, of Hingham in England, who 
in 1633 settled at " Bare Cove," which afterward became 
Hingham in Massachusetts. His grandfather, Joshua Jacobs, 
served as Second Lieutenant early in the War of the Revo- 
lution, and as Captain in the Continental Army from June i, 
1776, to the close of the war. His father was a soldier in 
the War of 1812. 

He received his education in the town schools and in the 
Groton, afterward Lawrence, Academy. He entered Harvard 
as Freshman in 1849, ^^^ ^'^ the winters of his Sophomore 
and Senior years kept school at Shirley; in that of his Junior 
year at Townsend. His part at Commencement was a dis- 
quisition — " Milton as a Controversialist." 

He intended on leaving college to make the law his profes- 
sion, and pursued his studies with various interruptions up 
to the year 1861, being also occupied in the care of his father's 
farm. On March i, 1855, he began to study in the office 
of John Spaulding, Jr., Esq., of Groton, where he remained 
during the years 1855 to 1858. On January 15, i860, he 
entered the office of Bradford Russell, Esq., and was with 
him a year. For a short time he studied under the direction 
of his classmate, Bennett, but he was never admitted to the 
Bar. His legal education was, however, not thrown away, 
as he found it useful in drawing papers and documents for 
himself, his neighbors and friends. From 1861 to the end 
of his life his business was the cultivation of his paternal 
acres, one of the finest farms in Groton, formerly the property 
of Dr. Oliver Prescott, Jr., nephew of William Prescott, the 
patriot. 

In the winter of 1885 he went to Europe to be treated at 
the Pasteur Institute for the bite of a dog supposed to be 

161 



Harvard Class of 1853 



mad. The cure, if a cure, was effectual, and he had no fur- 
ther trouble on that account. He made this visit the occasion 
of a three-months' tour in England, France, and Italy. 

Jacobs took an active part in the town affairs of Groton. 
He was a member of the School Committee from March, 
1873, to April, 1892; was Chairman in the years 1885, 1886 
and 1887, and served as Secretary for a great part of the 
period of his membership. He was Selectman in 1895 and 
1896. On June 17, 1895, the Groton Historical Society com- 
memorated the battle of Bunker Hill, when Jacobs took oc- 
casion to present a gun which had been carried by his grand- 
father in the Revolution and by his father in the War of 
1 81 2. The gun and accoutrements were accepted in behalf 
of the Society by the Hon. George S. Boutwell, with appro- 
priate remarks. 

Jacobs died at Groton, January 30, 1899, of pneumonia, 
after a short illness. He was never married. 

AMOS HOWE JOHNSON, 

Son of Samuel and Charlotte Abigail (Howe) John- 
son, was born at Boston, August 4, 1831. 

He received his early education at the Chauncy Hall School 
in Boston; at a private boarding-school in Quincy, from 
which he ran away ; at the Brookfield Family School at South 
Brookfield kept by the Rev. W. A. Nichols, from which also 
he ran away, but to which he was sent back, and at the Phil- 
lips Academy, Andover, from which he entered Harvard as 
a Freshman in 1849. His part at Commencement was a dis- 
quisition — " Charles the Fifth in Retirement." Even in col- 
lege the pursuit of Natural History seemed with him to be less 
of a task than a recreation. On Saturday mornings, when 
the rest of us hurried off for Boston and the frivolities of the 
town, Johnson would shoulder his fowling-piece and go shoot- 
ing specimens in the woods of Cambridge. 

Although the bent of his inclinations was in the direction 
of natural science, deep religious feeling and his sense of the 
need of workers in the Christian ministry led him to prepare 
himself to become a clergyman, and with that view he entered 

162 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the Andover Theological Seminary in September, 1853. He 
completed his course there in 1856, and on January i, 1857, 
was settled as pastor over the Congregational Church at Mid- 
dleton, Massachusetts. 

Persistent headaches and weakness of the throat led him to 
request a dismissal from that pastorate in the spring of 1861. 
Without any seeking on his part, while still a resident of 
Middleton, he was elected to the State House of Representa- 
tives for the year 1862, by the Twenty- fourth Essex District, 
comprising the towns of Middleton, Saugus, and Lynnfield. 

In the spring of 1862 he determined to study medicine. 
He entered the Harvard Medical School in that year, and 
took his degree of M.D. in 1865. As soon as practicable he 
went to reside at Salem, and while practising there was, for 
a short time. Secretary of the Essex Institute. 

In the autumn of 1869 he went abroad and entered the 
Medical School connected with the Hospital " La Charite " at 
Berlin, where he spent the following winter. In the spring 
of 1870 he visited Vienna, in order to attend the spring 
courses of instruction in the Hospitals. After a summer in 
Switzerland he returned to Berlin and spent the winter of 
1870-71 in medical studies there. In the spring of 1871 he 
visited Paris during the armistice which followed the Franco- 
Prussian War, was present at the triumphal entry of the Ger- 
man troops, and returned home to recommence his medical 
practice at Salem. 

It was the beginning of an extremely busy and useful career. 
He was, at the time of its foundation and for many years 
thereafter, on the medical staff of the Salem Hospital. He 
was a member of the consulting board of physicians of the 
Danvers Insane Asylum and for some time its Chairman. He 
was for several years Secretary and Councillor of the South 
District Massachusetts Medical Society, and for two years its 
President. He was a member of the Salem School Committee 
in the years 1873, 1874, and 1875. 

In 1876 Johnson was a delegate from the Massachusetts 
Medical Society to the International Medical Congress at 
Philadelphia. In 1877 he served on a Commission to investi- 

163 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gate the sanitary condition of Salem and made the report. 
During the same year, upon the foundation of the Massachu- 
setts Medico-Legal Society, he was elected an Associate Mem- 
ber. Subsequently, by appointment of the Mayor, he in- 
spected and reported upon the sanitary condition and needs 
of the public schools of Salem. In 1882 he was chosen to 
deliver the Annual Oration at the Anniversary of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society. He was for many years a corre- 
spondent of the State Board of Health, to whose reports he 
made special contributions. He was a Deacon of the South 
Church at Salem, a member of the Essex Congregational Club 
and, in 1889-91, its President. In 1874 he read before the 
club an essay on the " Physiological Limitations of Religious 
Experience," which excited so much interest that he was in- 
vited to deliver a course of lectures at the Andover Theologi- 
cal Seminary, the subject being " Some Physiological Facts 
to be regarded in Religious Teaching and Experience." The 
nine lectures thus delivered in 1875 were in part repeated be- 
fore the Essex Institute at Salem. It has been said of them : 
" The moment of these utterances was an especially timely one, 
being the transition period between the old and the new 
orthodoxy, and Dr. Johnson's utterances undoubtedly aided 
much in the re-formation of orthodox tenets and beliefs." 

In 1889 he passed six months in Europe for rest and recre- 
ation — his second and last visit. 

Johnson married, on September 22, 1857, Frances Seymour 
Benjamin, born at Athens, daughter of Nathan and Mary A. 
(Wheeler) Benjamin, American missionaries to Athens and 
to Constantinople. 

He died at Salem, on May 12, 1896, after a long illness and 
a painful disease, — cancer of the stomach, — leaving the 
highest reputation as a man, a physician, a citizen, and a 
Christian. 

Johnson left a widow and six children : Samuel, born July 
16, i860; Meta Benjamin, born May 7, 1862; Amy Howe, 
born July 23, 1865 ; Charles Alfred, born July 13, 1868; Philip 
Seymour, born February 26, 1872; Ralph Seymour, born 
May 16, 1878. 

164 



Harvard Class of 1853 



CHARLES EVERETT JOHNSON, 

Son of Frederick and Nancy (Chase) Johnson, was 
born at Bradford, Massachusetts, March i, 1830. The six 
years previous to 1848 were spent, according to his own ac- 
count in the Class Book, " in a grocery store, in the school 
house, and in sickness." 

He was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Andover, and 
entered Harvard in 1849 ^s Freshman. He was the Class Day 
Chaplain, and at Commencement delivered the Salutatory 
Oration in Latin. 

During the first year after graduation he was instructor in 
the Classical Department of his former school, the Phillips 
Academy. The following year was spent in the Theological 
Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey. Failing eyesight pre- 
vented further study, and after some time spent in travel he 
went into the business which occupied the rest of his active 
life, that of shoe manufacturing, first at New Orleans, later 
at Cincinnati, and finally, in partnership with his brother 
George Johnson, a graduate of Princeton, at Boston. He had 
business relations with Boston as early as 1863, but he does 
not appear to have resided there before 1870, when his busi- 
ness office was at 106 Hanover Street; afterwards at 116 Sum- 
mer Street. He resided successively at Boston, Brookline, 
West Newton, and Newton. He retired from business in 
1890, and lived for some time in California, and from 1895 
until his death in Colorado. He died at Denver, March 19, 
1 9 10. For eighteen years he had been blind and in failing 
health, for the last five years unable to sit up, and for two years 
unable to sustain consecutive thought. Though at times a 
great sufferer, his cheerfulness and patience never flagged, and 
his charities were numerous. He was especially interested in 
aiding needy young men to start in their careers. Since 1872 
he had been an active member of the Episcopal Church. 

Johnson was married in Boscawen, New Hampshire, in 
November, 1866, to Marianne, daughter of Worcester and 
Polly (Pettingill) Webster. His children were Robert Web- 
ster, born at Newton, September 28, 1867, now of Denver; and 
Philip Van Kuren, born at Boston, March 29, 1869, a graduate 

165 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of Harvard (1893) and of the Columbia College of Physicians 
and Surgeons of New York, now in practice there. 

JOSHUA KENDALL, 

Son of JosiAH and Mary Ann (Brown) Kendall, was 
born in that part of Waltham, Massachusetts, which is now 
Waverley, January 4, 1828. The old Revolutionary house in 
which his family had lived for several generations still exists, 
and overlooks the Mill Pond and Stream now forming part of 
the Beaver Brook Reservation. 

His literary inclinations induced his parents, in 1845, to send 
him to the Bridgewater State Normal School, and here he re- 
mained a year. In the winter of 1846-47 he taught a district 
school at Medfield. Returning to Bridgewater in the spring 
of 1847, he was invited to teach in the Normal School, and 
did so for a year. He prepared for college mostly under the 
tuition of Rev. James Ritchie (H. U. 1835), at Duxbury, and 
entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. While in college he 
kept school in winter at Mendon and at Lincoln, Massachu- 
setts. His Commencement part was a dissertation — " Less- 
ing as a Critic." 

In some autobiographical notes which he left, after express- 
ing his indebtedness to the influence of Benjamin Peirce, Asa 
Gray, Agassiz, Longfellow, and Lowell, he says : " There was 
course after course in which I took but little interest and from 
which I received but little profit. That was doubtless my own 
fault in part, my mind being taken up with other things; in 
part also because Tutors and Professors seemed to think their 
duty done when they saw you blunder on through some five 
minutes and then seize the pencil and down with the mark 
assigned you. They were no incentive to the appreciation of 
noble literature — stupid and deadening as Instructors, in- 
stead of enlivening and inspiring." 

On graduating he at once accepted the position of Principal 
of Mr. Stephen M. Weld's (H. U. 1826) private school for 
boys, at Jamaica Plain, where he taught for four years, when 
he took charge of a school in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 
1 86 1 he returned to the East and was appointed Principal of 

166 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the Rhode Island State Normal School at Bristol. In 1865 
he removed to Cambridge and opened a private school for 
preparing boys for college. He also had a summer school at 
Mt. Desert. Some of the announcements in his school circu- 
lars are epigrammatic and denote the quality of the man: 
" The rules are few, but they must be obeyed." " Ample play- 
grounds, also facilities for rowing, fishing and collecting 
specimens in Natural History. Fire-arms, tobacco and spirits 
not allowed." " Affords studious and industrious young men, 
from fourteen to eighteen years of age, an excellent oppor- 
tunity to get their preparatory education in a short time." 
" The right reserved to terminate the connection of any boy 
with the household, when the good of the whole demands it." 

Kendall was married, on September 14, 1854, to Phebe, 
daughter of William Mitchell, of Nantucket, a sister of the 
late Maria Mitchell, Professor of Astronomy at Vassar. Mrs. 
Kendall was a great factor in the success of the school, and 
was a member of the Cambridge School Committee from 
1881 to 1894. She died, June 4, 1907. A son, William 
Mitchell (H. U. 1876), now a distinguished architect of the 
firm of McKim, Mead & White, was born February 13, 1865. 

Kendall died, after a protracted decline, at a private sani- 
tarium at West Somerville, February 13, 1913. 

No member of the Class of '53 enjoyed his association with 
that body more thoroughly than Kendall. It has been the 
practice of late years, since he became unable to reach the class 
dinner, to remember him with flowers from the table. And 
in every change of domicile which waning strength compelled, 
he was prompt to advise the classmates who remained behind 
of his new address, that he might not suffer the loss of any 
of their valued attentions. 

EDWARD KING, 

Son of James Gore King (H. U. 1810) and Sarah 
Rogers (Gracie) King, was born July 30, 1833, at his 
father's country-seat, Highwood, Weehawken, New Jersey. 
His family has been very largely represented at Harvard. His 
grandfather, Rufus King, was of the Class of 1777, and he 

167 



Harvard Class of 1853 



has had an uncle, brothers, cousins, and two sons, all gradu- 
ates, besides his father, and the husbands, both of '87, of two 
daughters. 

He was educated in New York at the Grammar School of 
Columbia College, then situated in Murray Street and presided 
over by Professor Anthon, where the late Abraham S. Hewitt 
was one of his teachers, and at a French school kept by the 
brothers Peugnet, who had been officers in the French army 
under Napoleon and had fought at Waterloo. In 1847 he 
accompanied his parents and sisters to England in the sailing 
packet " New World," making the passage in about twenty- 
seven days, much to his enjoyment, as it was his first sea-trip. 
After landing at Liverpool they made a short trip through 
England and Scotland, posting a good part of the way, rail- 
ways then being comparatively few. After a short visit to 
London he left his family, and, with his cousin Archibald 
Gracie, afterwards a Confederate General killed at Peters- 
burg, he proceeded to a school at Sachs-Meiningen, where he 
acquired German. He was connected with this school until 
the spring of 1849, when he returned home. While there he 
made a trip, partly on foot, through Bavaria, Austria, the 
Salzkammergut, and the Tyrol. It was in 1848, the revolu- 
tionary days of Germany, and just after the expulsion of Lola 
Montez from Munich. 

In 1849 King entered Harvard as Freshman, and passed 
the first two years of his college life under the roof of Pro- 
fessor Agassiz, almost as a member of his family. To be con- 
stantly in the company of Agassiz proved to be an education 
of itself, his views were so broad, his conversation so inter- 
esting, and his devotion to science so intense. King's part at 
Commencement was a dissertation — " Art Unions." 

After graduation in 1853 King went to West Point and 
took private lessons in engineering from Professor Mahan, 
with the intention of becoming an engineer, and passed the 
winter of 1853-54 there. The then Superintendent of the 
Military Academy was Robert E. Lee, and his son Custis, 
with whom King frequently had a fencing bout, was a Cadet. 
Palfrey of '53 had just entered, and King admired him in the 

168 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gray uniform. His father died in October, 1853, and in the 
following spring he changed his plans and determined to make 
the banking business his occupation. He entered the banking- 
house of James G. King's Sons, where he remained until 1861, 
first as clerk and then as partner. During this period he 
visited Europe twice, and made a trip to the West, to St. Louis 
and St. Paul, the latter being in those days accessible by steam- 
boat only, there being no railway beyond Prairie du Chien on 
the Mississippi, while Minneapolis was a small village, con- 
sisting of a flour-mill or two, to which he drove through the 
country roads from St. Paul, returning over the prairie by 
way of Fort Snelling, a "Frontier Post." In 1861, having 
become a member of the New York Stock Exchange, he dis- 
solved partnership with the house of James G. King's Sons 
and started on his own account, subsequently becoming con- 
nected with the late James Robb and his son J. Hampden 
Robb. In 1872-73 he served as President of the New York 
Stock Exchange. In December, 1873, he became President of 
the Union Trust Company of New York, a position which he 
held at his death. He was a member of the Harvard Club of 
New York, very active in its establishment, and was President 
from 1890 to 1895; of the University Club, of which he was 
one of the Council ; of the Century Club, the Riding Club and 
the Ardsley Golf Club. He has been a Governor of the New 
York Hospital. 

He kindly furnished to the Secretary the following family 
record : 

Edward King, born July 30, 1833, at Highwood, New Jer- 
sey; married (ist), October 20, 1858, at Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, to Isabella Ramsay Cochrane, daughter of Rupert J. and 
Isabella Macomb Clarke Cochrane, born at London, England, 
September 8, 1838; died March i, 1873. Children: 

Isabella Clarke, born October 13, 1859. 

Edward Ramsay, born August 14, 1861 ; died April 20, 

1863. 

Alice Bayard, born August 14, 1864; married October 15, 
1891, to Herman Leroy Edgar (H. U. '87). Their son, Wil- 
liam, born March 8, 1894. 

169 



Harvard Class of 1853 



James Gore, born June 6, 1868 (H. U. '89); married, 
April 22, 1896, to Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of John Erving 
('53), and have children, James Gore, born May 25, 1898, and 
Eleanor Erving, born November 29, 1900. 

Elizabeth Gracie, born July 30, 1870; married, April 20, 
1908, to Alpheus Sumner Hardy (H. U. '87). 

Rupert Cochrane, born February 24, 1873 (H. U. '94) ; 
married, June 6, 1901, to Grace Marion. Their child, Kath- 
arine Langdon, born May 23, 1902. 

Married (2d), May 26, 1885, Elizabeth Fisher, born Octo- 
ber I, 1847, daughter of William Fisher of Philadelphia, and 
Julia (Palmer) Fisher. Their son, Edward, born September 
2y, 1886. 

King's death, which occurred at New York, November 17, 
1908, was the result of his prescribed equestrian exercise, 
begun several years since. While riding in Central Park, a 
few days before, as was his uniform practice in the morning, 
his horse stumbled and fell on him, inflicting injuries from 
which he never rallied. His funeral took place at Grace 
Church on the 21st, and he was buried at Jamaica, Long 
Island. 

The loss of King to his classmates is a heavy one. When- 
ever he found it possible he came from New York to attend 
the annual dinner, and often appeared at our class room on 
Commencement Day and frequently gave valuable assistance 
to the Secretary in his researches into class biography. When 
pecuniary contributions were called for, he was always ready 
to help. 

Besides the clubs and societies mentioned by King in his 
memoir, he was some time President of the St. Nicholas So- 
ciety; a Fellow of the National Academy of Design; Member 
of the New York Chamber of Commerce; Director of the 
Hanover National Bank. He served as President of the New 
York Stock Exchange in 1872, and was called in the panic 
year 1873 to the Presidency of the Union Trust Company. 
The company's affairs were in a somewhat critical state at 
the time, but under his management its position was soon re- 
stored and the basis of its present prosperity was laid. 

170 



Harvard Class of 1853 



The following testimonial is quoted from the Resolve of the 
Board of Directors of the Hanover National Bank of the City 
of New York, of November 20: 

" This Board has learned with profound sorrow of the 
death of their late friend and associate, Edward King, who 
for so many years had been regular in his attendance at the 
meetings of the Board, and faithful to his duties as a Direc- 
tor, and who by his untiring interest and wise counsel con- 
tributed in no small degree to its success. The descendant of 
a famous banker, he also established a national reputation as 
a financier. By his wise and conservative action he rendered 
valuable service to the interests of the country at a critical 
period of its history, and for thirty-five years was the honored 
President of the Union Trust Company of New York. Dur- 
ing all that time he was prominent in every movement that 
made for the betterment of financial conditions. He was 
a man of sterling integrity, of ripe judgment. His intercourse 
with others was marked by a geniality of manner and dignity 
of bearing. With a warm and generous heart he was loved by 
all who knew him." 

The Union Trust Company of New York, which he had 
served for a full generation, and which stood so well in the 
financial world that a man of Rockefeller's shrewdness chose 
it for his place of deposit, entered these words, with others of 
like import, on its records : 

''Resolved, That we recall with pride the results of this 
long period of faithful devotion, the financial success which 
attended his eflforts, and the conspicuous standing for fidelity 
and conservatism upon which he firmly established the affairs 
of the Company. 

" Resolved, That, in considering the loss we have sustained, 
we are ever more strongly impressed by the sterling and gentle 
qualities which characterized him, and which attached us all 
so strongly to his winning personality, and endeared him to 
us as an associate and as a friend. He was a model of straight- 
forward and single-minded honesty and sincerity, coupled 
with a firmness which we respected and a gentleness which 
we loved." 

171 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Subordinate officers of the company who had served under 
him also put on record the following tribute : 

" Mr, King's devotion to the interests of the Trust Com- 
pany was an inspiration to us all. His broad, cultivated mind, 
his quick insight into the most complicated problems, his great 
moral courage and promptness to act, excited and held our 
admiration, while his tender sympathy for those among us 
who have gone to him in distress has won and held our deep 
gratitude and affection." 

The fine tribute paid to Agassiz, by our classmate, in the 
"Boston Transcript" of May 29, 1907, shows what King 
might have achieved with his pen, had his busy life ever af- 
forded him opportunities for the use of it. 

CHARLES FREDERICK LIVERMORE, 

Son of Isaac and Eunice (Hovey) Livermore, was born 
at Cambridge, March 13, 1830. 

He was educated successively in Miss Elizabeth Carter's 
and Mr. Allen Lincoln's schools and in the Hopkins Classical 
School, all in Cambridge. In 1842 he was placed under the 
instruction of the Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, an uncle by mar- 
riage, at Leominster. In 1844 he entered the Boston Latin 
School, and in 1849 Harvard College as Freshman. He was 
one of the crew of the " Oneida " in the first Harvard- Yale 
boat-race on August 3, 1852. He was Class Marshal on the 
march to Charlestown, June 17, 1850. 

After graduation, three months were spent on a mackerel- 
cruise with his classmate Davis in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
three months in attending a commercial college in Boston, 
followed by three terms at the Lawrence Scientific School, 
with experiments in a private laboratory at home. He re- 
ceived his degree of S.B. in 1856. From 1857 to 1859 he 
was engaged as assistant chemist at the Roxbury Chemical 
Works. In 1859 he went to New York, and entered into a 
partnership with Alexander H. Everett, Jr., as manufactur- 
ing chemists, but returned to Cambridge in 1861, the break- 
ing out of the War having paralyzed business. 

He was commissioned, February 26, 1862, Junior Second 

172 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Lieutenant in the ist Unattached Company, Massachusetts 
Heavy Artillery, and stationed at Fort Warren in Boston 
Harbor. He was successively commissioned Senior First 
Lieutenant of the 2d Company, November 3, 1862; Captain 
of the 4th Company, afterwards Company C, ist Battery, 
April 10, 1863; and Major of the ist Battery, August 6, 
1865, in the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. He was on gar- 
rison duty and coast defence, at Forts Warren and Indepen- 
dence, and in command at Fort Warren. He was mustered 
out as Captain October 20, 1865. 

Of his war experiences and prisoners, Livermore writes : 
" Mason and Slidell had left before I was stationed there. 
The first of note whom we had were Mayor Brown, City 
Marshal Kane, and some other Baltimore officials, who were 
arrested for supposed complicity in the attack on the 6th 
Massachusetts Regiment. After that we had everything from 
a Major-General down to a private. I remember that one 
high-toned gentleman made a protest against having a colored 
man confined in the same room with him. Our Major, 
Stephen Cabot, told him that if his people thought that Bob 
Shaw was not too good to be buried with his * niggers ' he 
could perhaps get along with this one colored person. But 
of all those whom we had, the most distinguished and the 
most delightful was Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-Presi- 
dent of the C. S. A. (so called), a perfect type of the Southern 
gentleman, a man of extensive reading and study, well in- 
formed on a great variety of subjects and ready to talk of 
them in a delightful way. He soon won his way to my heart, 
and he became a warm friend not only of myself but of my 
wife also. They used to have lively discussions on the ab- 
sorbing topics of that time, and after his return to his home 
he kept up a correspondence, which terminated only with his 
death. In one of his books, written after his release, he 
speaks warmly of the treatment he received from us both. I 
have a volume of Greeley's ' American Conflict ' with Mr. 
Stephens's autographic presentation to me inscribed when he 
left us. It has his marginal notes where he took exceptions 
to the writer's statements. One day I received a telegram 

173 



Harvard Class of 1853 



from Washington, one of those ribbon-like strips, over four- 
teen feet in length, ordering Mr. vStephens's release and giv- 
ing the conditions of the same in full. I do not know which 
of us was the most pleased when I read it to him. A few 
days later we parted with marked expressions of esteem and 
affection. He was a most charming man, and my recollec- 
tions of him will always be most pleasant. I was disappointed 
in not getting into a * marching ' regiment, but we had the 
satisfaction of knowing that we were doing good where we 
were. We always had from three to four hundred prisoners 
who kept us on the alert constantly. We had charted the 
harbor and had the range of every point of it. We had 
photographs of all the Confederate vessels known to be prowl- 
ing around the coast, and every suspicious craft was at once 
reported by the sentries. One good piece of work we did 
was to put an end to the Draft Riots (July 14, 1863) with 
a discharge of double canister. That shot killed thirty-one 
of the mob and terminated the disturbance. . . . We took 
part in an exchange of prisoners, some 2,300, at a landing 
about ten miles from Richmond conducted by Adjutant-Gen- 
eral Thomas, receiving a lot of starved and emaciated men, 
in place of the well-fed and healthy ones we gave them. Many 
of ours died on our hands on the way down the James River." 

In 1866, after the close of the War, Livermore became 
connected in business with a soap factory in Cambridge which 
supplied the woolen mills of New England, where his knowl- 
edge of chemistry was especially useful, and in January of 
the following year he removed to and took up his residence 
at Detroit, Michigan. Here he entered into the employment 
which became his occupation for the rest of his life, that of 
a railroad-accountant. 

The dates of his successive connections in that capacity are 
as follows: 1867, with the Association of Companies known 
as the " Blue Line "; 1872, with the Michigan Central Rail- 
road; 1877, with the Grand Trunk Railway, and the Erie and 
North Shore Despatch; 1883, with the Detroit, Bay City and 
Alpena Railroad, afterwards re-organized as the Detroit and 
Mackinac Railway. 

174 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Livermore married, at Newport, Rhode Island, on January 
26, 1859, Anna Winthrop, daughter of Henry Chapman of 
Greenfield, and of Clara Temple Chapman of Rutland, Ver- 
mont, deceased March 22, 1900. 

His children were Clara Temple, bom April 30, 1864; Alice 
Chapman, born April 9, 1867, deceased January 25, 1868; 
Jane Burlingame, born December 8, 1868; Katherine Emmet, 
born January 9, 1871, married George C. Beebe December 
13, 1893; Frederick Temple, born December 5, 1873. 

Livermore continued in the service of the Detroit and 
Mackinac Railway until within four weeks of his death, which 
took place on January 16, 1907. He had always been very 
strong and free from the infirmities of age. After enjoying 
a family Christmas with children and grandchildren about 
him, he took to his bed, from which he never rose. His 
daughter says : " The trouble was in the brain, and he had no 
suffering at all, but grew gradually weaker and finally slept 
away. The doctor had never seen a more natural and peace- 
ful death. His college and classmates were very dear to him 
and he loved to talk of the reunion of 1903. He had many 
of his college mementoes hung about his room, with his 
diploma and marshal's baton." 

ARTHUR THEODORE LYMAN, 

Son of George Williams Lyman (H. U. 1806) and 
Anne (Pratt) Lyman, was born at Boston December 8, 
1832, and was a resident of Boston until 1839, when he began 
to pass his summers at Waltham and his winters in town. He 
is a first cousin of President Eliot. 

After attending various elementary schools he was fitted 
for college by a succession of private tutors, and entered 
Harvard as Freshman in 1849. His part at Commencement 
was an English oration — " Ascendancy of the Reason and of 
the Feelings at Different Stages of Life and of Civilization." 

In the autumn of 1853 he entered the counting-room of 
Messrs. Samuel and Edward Austin, East India merchants, 
having their place of business at the foot of India Wharf, 
Boston. At the end of a year and a half he went abroad 

175 



Harvard Class of 1853 



for an extended tour on the Continent of Europe and in 
Great Britain, in the course of which he passed two or three 
days at the headquarters of the EngHsh army in the Crimea, 
about two weeks after the capture of the Russian forts on 
the south of Sebastopol. In the autumn of 1856 he returned, 
and for two or three years was engaged in the East India 
business on his own account. 

Late in i860 he was elected Treasurer of the Hamihon 
Manufacturing Company, and in January, 1861, Treasurer 
of the Appleton Company, both being Lowell companies. In 
the autumn of 1862 he resigned these offices and became a 
partner in the firm of J. W. Paige & Company, a commission- 
house selling the goods of various cotton mills situated at 
Lowell and elsewhere. The Civil War and consequent cut- 
ting off, to a great extent, of the cotton supply soon closed 
most of the mills, and the firm of J. W. Paige & Company 
was dissolved in 1863 or 1864. Lyman continued for a short 
time the sale of the few goods made by one or two of the 
mills. In November, 1866, he was chosen Treasurer of the 
Hadley Company of Holyoke, and held that office till 1889; 
afterwards that of President till 1900, when the Hadley Com- 
pany was merged with the American Thread Company. In 
January, 1881, he was elected Treasurer of the Lowell Manu- 
facturing Company, a carpet factory at Lowell, and continued 
to act as such until its consolidation, in 1900, with the Bigelow 
Carpet Company of Clinton. In January and February, 1902, 
he was chosen Treasurer of the Waltham Bleachery and Dye 
Works, and of the Boston Manufacturing Company, incor- 
porated in 1 90 1. 

He was for many years, at various times, President, Direc- 
tor, or Trustee in these corporate institutions; President of 
the Essex Company, Pacific Mills, Merrimack Manufactur- 
ing Company, Bigelow Carpet Company, Boott Cotton Mills, 
Whittenton Manufacturing Company, Lowell Machine Shop, 
Massachusetts Cotton Mills, Tremont and Suffolk Mills, 
Proprietors of Locks and Canals on Merrimack River, Mas- 
sachusetts Mills in Georgia; Director in the Lawrence 
Manufacturing Company, Dwight Manufacturing Company, 

176 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Middlesex Company, Director and President of the Massa- 
chusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, Director of the 
Massachusetts Bank for thirty-seven years, Boston Manu- 
facturers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company; Trustee and 
President of the Provident Institution for Savings in Boston; 
besides acting as Trustee for many private estates. 

In June, 1892, he was elected Overseer of Harvard College 
for one year to fill a vacancy in the Board, and in 1893 was 
reelected for the term of six years. He is a member of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, of the Historic-Genealogical 
and of the Colonial Societies; has been Director and Treas- 
urer of the American Unitarian Association; has been a 
member of the Vestry of King's Chapel for fifty years, and 
Senior Warden since 1877; President of the Boston Athe- 
naeum, and a corporator of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. 

Lyman was married, on April 8, 1858, to Ella, daughter of 
John Amory Lowell, of Boston, deceased March 28, 1894. 
Their children were: Julia, born January 30, 1859; Arthur, 
born August 31, 1861 (H. U. 1883) ; Herbert, May 17, 1864 
(H. U. 1886) ; Ella, born February 26, 1866; Susan Lowell, 
born February 8, 1869, died September 14, 1878; Mabel, born 
January 15, 1872; and Ronald Theodore, born July 8, 1879 
(H. U. 1902). 

Several members of this family have made themselves 
known by service to the public. Ella, the wife of Dr. Richard 
C. Cabot, is an active member of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Education and of the Council of Radcliffe College. 
The son Arthur (H. U. '83) was Mayor of Waltham in 1896. 
Herbert (H. U. '86) is Treasurer of the Merrimack Manu- 
facturing Company of Lowell. Ronald (H. U. '02) is Treas- 
urer of the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, of 
the Whittenton Manufacturing Company of Taunton, of the 
Salmon Falls Manufacturing Company of New Hampshire, 
of the Waltham Bleachery and Dye Works. 

Other large real-estates and various interests divide the 
attention of the family, and, while the president of a mill 
corporation is not likely to be its general manager, he is likely 

177 



Harvard Class of 1853 



to be largely interested in its assets and to be constantly- 
consulted. " Thus," as Lyman writes, " what with Congress 
and the State Legislatures, and benevolent people who are 
generally ignorant of unavoidable conditions, which in practice 
are often the first that have to be considered, there is enough 
to keep one thinking and busy." 

FRANCIS McGUIRE, 

Son of Patrick and Catharine (Kaney) McGuire, was 
born at Ross, County Fermanagh, Ireland, July 20, 1827. The 
first thirteen years of his life were spent at home without 
any definite object beyond amusement and the enjoyment of 
the sports of the field and of fishing, the facilities for the 
latter being most ample, since three lakes and as many rivers 
bordered on his father's farm. At the age of thirteen he first 
went to school, being then able to read and to enjoy reading. 
His progress during the first year was considered remarkable, 
but indolence gained the mastery over industry, and it was 
resolved that his attention should be turned to something else, 
so he was set as a shepherd to tend flocks and spend the day 
in the fields. This gave more opportunity for reading, and 
it was determined that he should have one more trial at 
school. He was sent to a school in the neighboring Kitty 
clogher, where, in about three months, he mastered Murray's 
English Grammar and the first six books of Euclid. Having 
gained favor by this improvement, he was sent in company 
with his brother to a school in the South of Ireland, about 
two hundred miles from home. Here he remained for eigh- 
teen months, and having devoted himself wholly to study, his 
health became so impaired that he was obliged to relinquish 
it for many years. 

" In the year 1846," to quote his own words, " when Ire- 
land was visited by famine, when all her hopes as well as all 
her resources had been blasted, he resolved to come to Amer- 
ica, to leave the old home — parents and relations — all that 
was dear to the heart, and seek fortune in a land more blessed, 
where the withering blast of oppression would not blight the 
young hopes — where the fair designs of nature had not been 

178 



Harvard Class of 1853 



thwarted and perverted by the wanton lawlessness of relent- 
less oppression." 

McGuire landed at Boston on March 7, 1847, and was ill 
for some time, and then went to work in a printing office on 
Wilson's Lane, on small wages. After this he lived as a 
servant in several places in the city of Boston, went to Cam- 
bridge and prepared for college at the Hopkins Classical 
School under Mr. Whitman, and was admitted as Freshman 
at Harvard in 1849. Here he lived as a servant in a students' 
boarding-house. 

Before coming to this country McGuire had begun to study 
for the priesthood, which introduced him to some acquaintance 
with the clergy here, from whom he received assistance dur- 
ing his college course and afterwards when he resumed his 
studies in theology. The students whom he served were in- 
terested in his progress and also helped him with books and 
clothing. An attachment for the niece of one of his clerical 
friends, whom he frequently visited, turned his thoughts from 
the priestly vocation to the study of medicine, and his name 
appears in the list of the students of the Harvard Medical 
School in the annual catalogues covering the years 1853-55, 
but apparently he never took a medical degree. However, he 
practised medicine, at one time in Milford, Massachusetts. 
He died, unmarried, of consumption, at Medway at the house 
of a niece who cared for him, on February 15, 1861. 

A legendary story is current among McGuire's relatives that 
he went as a surgeon on the sloop of war " Levant," and 
had a miraculous escape from the wreck, and that he returned 
with health much broken. The " Levant " was attached to 
the Pacific Squadron and was last heard of on September 3, 
i860, at Hilo in the Hawaiian Islands, whence she was to sail 
for Panama. Nothing was ever afterward heard from her. 
The name of Francis McGuire is not found on the rolls of the 
"Levant," January i to March 31, i860, the last on file. 

GEORGE FREDERICK MEACHAM, 

Son of Giles A. and Jane A. Meacham, was born at 
Watertown, Massachusetts, July i, 1831. 

179 



Harvard Class of 1853 



He was educated successively at the schools of a Mr. Pea- 
body at Newton Corner, of the Rev. Samuel Ripley at Wal- 
tham, and, from 1846 to 1849, ^^ the Hopkins Classical School 
at Cambridge, then under Mr. Edmund B. Whitman, and from 
there he entered Harvard as Freshman. During the winter 
of 1852 he kept school at Eastham, Massachusetts. His part 
at Commencement was an essay — " The Venerable Bede." 

For two years after graduation he was engaged in the 
study and practice of civil engineering, having an engagement 
on the Jersey City Water Works. In the spring of 1855 the 
outlook for that profession was gloomy, and he entered an 
architect's office in Boston, more by accident than intention. 
He found himself better fitted for the architectural than for 
the engineering profession, having a taste for mechanics, as 
well as for drawing and color. In these pursuits he was as- 
sisted by a brother of Miss Elizabeth Peabody of Boston. 

In 1857 he began the practice of his profession in Boston, 
and this he kept up until 1891, when he abandoned active 
business. In March, 1870, he moved from Watertown, where 
he had lived most of the time from his birth, to Newton. 
In April, 1876, he made a six months' trip to Europe. 
Meacham first married, on September 27, 1859, Mary J. 
Warren, of New Boston, New Hampshire, deceased July 29, 
1877, ^"d by this marriage had a daughter Helen Hamilton, 
born August 25, 1861, deceased February 20, 1877; a son 
Philip Leon, born October 15, 1868, deceased November 19, 
1869. He was married again, September 28, 1881, to Ellen 
Louisa Frost, of Boston. 

CHARLES APPLETON MILES, 

Son of Solomon Pearson Miles (H. U. 1819), Master 
of the English High School, Boston, 1823-37, and Sarah E. 
(Appleton) Miles, was born at Boston, March 10, 1834. 

He was prepared for college at the Roxbury Latin School 
and entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. He was bow-oar 
in the first Harvard^Yale boat race, August 3, 1852. His 
Commencement part was a disquisition — " Shakespeare's 
Conception of the Roman Character." 

180 



Harvard Class of 1853 



On graduation he was for nearly two years in the counting- 
house of William Perkins, a merchant, of Boston, and for 
more than a year in the employment of the Lowell Bleachery. 
He then went to the West, resided at Dubuque, Iowa, and 
engaged in the steamboat and banking business, until the 
commercial panic of 1857 compelled a change of occupation. 
He took up that of teaching, which became his profession. 
He taught the High School in Brattleboro for a year, and then 
opened in that place a boarding-school for boys, called " The 
Burnside Military School," which he conducted for a time 
with great success, till the year 1873, when he went to Europe. 
While there he studied at Heidelberg, Gotha, and Paris. In 
1876 he was appointed Head Master of the Anthon Grammar 
School in New York, where he remained a couple of years, and 
then opened the " Arnold School." This he taught until 1885. 
He then retired from the active pursuit of his profession, but 
resided at Brattleboro and occasionally prepared pupils for 
Harvard or Yale. He died at Brattleboro, July 3, 191 1. 

Miles was a very popular and public-spirited citizen of 
Brattleboro, an active member of the Brooks Library Com- 
mittee, one of the Trustees of the Austin fund for a School 
for the Deaf and Blind, and much interested in Masonry. 
He was twice Worshipful Master of Columbian Lodge No. 36; 
High Priest of Fort Dummer Arch Chapter for six years; 
Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Ver- 
mont for two years ; First Eminent Commander of Beauseant 
Commandery No. 7, holding that office until he went abroad 
and was reelected on his return. 

He married, on December 29, 1879, Myra Josephine Finn, 
who died November 6, 1882, and on August 8, 1889, Fanny 
Glover Train. One son, Appleton Train, was born June 13, 
1894. His wife and son survived him. 

RAYMOND MOULTON, 

Son of Charles F. and Cesarine Jane (Meetz) Moul- 
TON, was born in the city of New York, February 4, 1833. 
His father was descended from Robert Moulton, one of the 
six shipwrights sent out by the Massachusetts Company in 

181 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1629, from whom " Moul ton's Point " in Charlestown is 
named, as are the " Moulton's Miseries " off the North Shore 
supposed to be. " If," says our Moulton, " he was not one 
of the two or three thousand passengers on board the ' May- 
flower,' he may have helped in repairing the glorious old tub," 
which is by no means improbable, as the " Mayflower " was 
sent to Massachusetts somewhat later in the same year. His 
mother was a descendant of Frangois Cesar Leroy, a French 
gentleman, who disappeared at sea between Boston and Quebec. 

He was educated at a private school and college in Paris, 
and in 1848 came to Cambridge and was prepared to enter 
college by John M. Marsters, afterwards Tutor, and admitted 
Freshman in 1849. After graduation, in 1853, he returned 
to Paris, where his family resided. As his life was for some 
tim^ thereafter a private one, that of an observer of public 
events, I cannot do better than to give his reminiscences in 
his own lively words : 

" As to anything else [than marriage and birth of children] 
of interest to others, I can only say that I have seen a variety 
of governments in France and have come to the conclusion 
that, whatever the signboard is that is put over the shop, the 
goods are always the same. In 1844 at a children's ball given 
by Louis Philippe I clasped him affectionately around the leg. 
Four years later, when the old man was too good-hearted to 
shoot a few hundred rioters, I yelled with other children, as 
idiotic but much older than myself, ' Vive la Republique.' A 
few months later it was thousands that had to be shot. Paris 
grew too hot. A workman of my father's took me by the 
hand and led me out of Paris over the barricades. I then 
took a strong dislike to civil war. It was then thought best 
to clear out altogether, and to New York we came. Things 
looking brighter in France, I was left in the United States 
and told to enter Harvard College, which I did. College life 
I rather liked in spite of homesickness. Only distinguished 
myself by rusticating at Cohasset, nearly getting drowned 
one Christmas Day while duck-shooting with a classmate 
named Richards, and roasting a partridge spitted on a foil, 
shot near Mt. Auburn by Rear Admiral or General Charley 

182 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Paine. Returned to Paris, found the signboard changed to 
'Empire Frangais,' had rather a good time in spite of the 
tyrant, and got married. 'Empire Frangais' was knocked 
into the gutter, and ' RepubHque Frangaise ' substituted. Prus- 
sians swept that into the mud, and I had to take wife and 
baby to London, — filthy cHmate. Returned to Paris in time 
to see the smoke of the burned Tuileries, and pick up empty 
shells under the sign of ' La Commune.' Thought then more 
than ever that of all wars civil war was the most abominable. 
Soon the signboard 'RepubHque Frangaise' was up again, 
and there it sticks. And the conclusion I have come to is 
that if Louis Philippe had been left alone, France would be 
the richest and freest country in Europe." 

Moulton was appointed United States Consular Agent at 
Dinard in 1880, where he has continued to reside. 

Again he says, writing from Dinard, Sunday, April 13, '02, 
with the true French flavor : " As I am writing this, the sun 
is shining over the bluest of seas, — the birds are twittering 
and nesting, — spring flowers blooming, and I don't see what 
advantage it is to me to feel that it is about time for me to 
clear out. A Sunday feeling this, no doubt." 

And again : " I would very much like to be present at one 
of our Class Meetings, but it is very far from Dinard to 
Cambridge. I must give up that pleasure. Besides, Harvard 
must have grown very large and a modern-style place. I 
prefer remembering it with its red brick buildings, although 
already spoilt by the Library, — its absurd little bell perched 
upon the roof, and its wooden pump. That morning Chapel- 
call was trying in winter ! Bien des choses aux camarades! 
*' Very truly yours, 

R. Moulton." 

He was married, on June 15, 1869, at Paris, to Louisa 
Emilie Aglae, daughter of Dr. Donatien Binsse, of New York, 
who died March 16, 1897. Their children were: Louisa 
Charlotte, born September, 1870, died May, 1900; Raymond 
Edward, born November, 1871; Donatien Augustus, born 
June, 1873; Helen Emily, born August, 1878. 

183 



Harvard Class of 1853 



HENRY STEDMAN NOURSE 

South Lancaster, Mass., March 31, 1902. 
My dear Shaw: 

Your request of 27th inst. deserves prompt response and I 
hasten " renovare dolor em." 

While undergraduate, to secure means for defraying my 
college expenses, I taught school in Lancaster three winters, 
and it is said with unusual success. I was, however, over 
$1,000 in debt at the close of my college career and had to 
seek remunerative employment at once. Just before gradua- 
tion, Professor Bowen sent for me and offered me the posi- 
tion of " Professor of Ancient Languages " at Phillips Exeter 
Academy. This I accepted and held it for two years, when 
an offer of greatly increased salary as Principal of Bristol 
Academy, Taunton, enticed me into less pleasant and less clas- 
sic fields. In Taunton I gave such hours as were not needed 
for my pedagogical duties to reading law in the office of 
Baylies and John E. San ford, — more to relieve the monotony 
of a treadmill-like life than with any view of becoming a 
legal practitioner. Two years more of teaching found me 
with impaired health, constantly subject to neuralgic and bron- 
chial troubles, tortured by dyspepsia and a chronic cough. 
I needed and desired out-of-door occupation, and resolved to 
enter the profession of civil engineering, for which I was 
mathematically and by mechanical aptitude quite well fitted. 
In 1858, after a recreative journey through the Middle and 
Western United States, I entered the office of Whitwell & 
Henck, Boston, who were engineers in charge of the work 
of filling in the " Back Bay," then just begun. In 1859 and 
i860 I was engaged in building an extension of the Delaware 
Railway through the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This work 
was interrupted by the troubles which culminated in the Civil 
War and I returned to Massachusetts. 

At the time the first regiments were sent South from this 
State I offered my services to Governor Andrew, presenting 
testimonials from such men as Samuel M. Felton and George 

A. Parker (the president and chief engineer of the P. W. & 

B. R. R.), Peleg W. Chandler, and other Massachusetts 

184 



Harvard Class of 1853 



worthies. Thinking myself warranted in asking a commis- 
sion rather than enlisting as a private because of my experi- 
ence in railway and bridge building in the South, I visited 
the ante-room of the governor's office sundry times, and really 
expected that my classmate, A. G. Browne (the Governor's 
military secretary, etc.), would aid me to an interview with 
his Excellency. This was the first and the only time I have 
ever, directly or indirectly, solicited any office or honor for 
myself. After wasting much time, I came to the conclusion 
that I stood no chance of favor in the " State House ring." 
I therefore demanded my testimonials and went with them 
to General Butler, who was then organizing his expedition 
against New Orleans. He received me blandly and promised 
me place of course. His quarrel with Andrew broke out soon 
after, and just then I got a letter from a schoolmate and close 
friend of mine in Chicago, who had been commissioned ad- 
jutant of the " Douglas Brigade," asking me to join him. He 
stated that the brigade-commander wanted an engineer, as 
his organization was to be attached to Fremont's much-talked- 
of flotilla by which he proposed to open the Mississippi. I 
went to Chicago without delay. This long story will fully 
answer your question about my serving in a Western instead 
of a Massachusetts regiment. Of course Fremont's magnifi- 
cent schemes never materialized. I became Adjutant and Cap- 
tain in the 55th Illinois Infantry, serving over three years; 
was appointed Commissary of Musters for the 17th Army 
Corps during the march from Atlanta to Richmond, and was 
mustered out at the close of hostilities as Captain, although 
the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel awaited me if I had 
chosen to return to the West with my command, of which I 
had for three months been the senior officer. The State of 
Illinois gave no brevet rank to any one. 

My regiment was one of the best in the Army of the 
Tennessee, belonging to the 2d Division of the 15th Army 
Corps, which division commonly went by the name " Sher- 
man's Pet Lambs." It travelled 2,875 "liles by rail, 5,850 by 
boat, and marched 3,240 miles. Its dead lie in nine different 
States. Its total killed and wounded were 448, or 41% of 

185 



Harvard Class of 1853 



its 1,090 rank and file, and 129 died of disease during the 
War. It had active part in 31 engagements, in all but one 
of which I was on duty with it. The chief of these were the 
battles of Shiloh, Russell House, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas 
Post, the two assaults and the siege of Vicksburg, Champion's 
Hill, Jackson, the assault of Little Kenesaw, Atlanta, Ezra 
Church, Jonesborough, Fort McAllister, and Bentonville. I 
was slightly wounded in the ankle by a shell at Shiloh, and 
had the usual and some unusual " narrow escapes." 

In June, 1865, I returned to my professional labors and saw 
the completion of the Peninsula Railway to Crisfield, Mary- 
land. A year later I was for some months employed upon the 
great bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Sus- 
quehanna at Perry\411e. In September, 1866, I received the 
appointment of resident engineer to the Pennsylvania Steel 
Company and began construction of their Bessemer Steel 
Works on the Susquehanna near Harrisburg, now known as 
Steelton. Of these works I became general superintendent, 
June I, 1868, upon the resignation of my friend Alexander 
L. Holley, the noted inventor and engineer who introduced 
the Bessemer process into the United States. The chief prod- 
uct of the works was steel rails, which we sold at first for 
$150 per ton (the importer's price for English rails), and 
they cost us fully that sum to manufacture. The protection 
of a high tariff only kept us from ruin for several years. 

September 12, 1872, I married Mary B. (Whitney) Thurs- 
ton, widow of my old companion in arms, Captain George 
L. Thurston, and one of the most amiable and precious help- 
mates ever man had. By her I had two children, girls, who 
died shortly after their birth. My wife died of apoplexy (in 
the form of aphasia), July 29, 1899. My father died August 
19, 1880, aged 80 years; my mother, November 23, 1898, 
aged 95 years. My only sister survives unmarried. 

Becoming a victim to insomnia through the strain of too 
much responsibility, I resigned the superintendency of the 
Steel Works, January i, 1874, and with my wife spent the 
year, from August, in Europe. We gave August, September, 
and October to leisurely travel through England, Holland, 

186 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Belgium, Prussia, and Switzerland ; passed nearly six months 
in Italy — three of which we spent in Rome — two months 
in France, and the months of June and July in England and 
Scotland. I returned home with health fully restored. Soon 
after, I was offered the managership of new steel-works in Mis- 
souri, but thought it prudent to decline, and set up my penates 
in Lancaster, occupying myself with the care of a few acres 
of land, taking a working interest in town affairs, and being 
often employed by the Maverick Oil Company at East Bos- 
ton, in the line of my profession, overseeing the construction 
of buildings, wharves, etc. 

I was elected a member of the House of Representatives 
from the 5th Worcester Representative District for 1883. I 
was chosen to represent the 5th Worcester Senatorial District 
in the Senates of 1885 and 1886, and held the chairmanship of 
committees on " Roads and Bridges," " Library," and '' Public 
Service." I believe the only legislative speech of mine to be 
honored in print was one against the " Soldier's Exemption 
Bill." I reframed the State game laws, " in the interest of 
the birds," by radical amendments of a bill, presented by the 
Committee on Fisheries and Game in 1886, which had been 
driven through the House. The Senate unanimously passed 
the bill as I had reshaped it, and the House acquiesced. This 
law remained unchanged upon the statute book for many 
years, in spite of the annually attempted tinkering of poul- 
terers and pot-hunters. 

In 1885 the defalcation and flight to Canada of the presi- 
dent of the Lancaster Bank swept away about half of my 
life-long savings, and annihilated some cherished plans. 

December 5, 1888, Governor Ames appointed me a Trustee 
of the Worcester Insane Hospitals for six years, and Governor 
Greenhalge reappointed me in 1894. In 1890 Governor 
Brackett appointed me one of the five members of the newly 
created Free Public Library Commission — a position which 
I now hold by reappointments from Governors Russell and 
Wolcott. In June, 1898, Governor Wolcott asked me to ac- 
cept membership in either the Board of Lunacy and Charity 
or the Prison Commission. I chose the former. For twenty- 

187 



Harvard Class of 1853 



five years I have been one of the Library Trustees in Lan- 
caster, and have held other town offices when I could not well 
excuse myself. 

October 22, 1883, I was elected a member of the American 
Antiquarian Society. November 14, 1889, I was elected to 
membership in the Massachusetts Historical Society. The 
following year I was chosen a member of the Historic Gene- 
alogical Society but declined the honor. March i, 1893, I 
joined the Massachusetts Order of the Loyal Legion of the 
United States. April 11 of the same year I was elected a 
member of the Massachusetts Military Historical Society. 

My printed work, about which you inquire, includes Oc- 
tavos: 1884, The Early Records of Lancaster, 1643-1725; 
1887, The Story of the 55th Regiment Illinois Infantry; 1890, 
The Birth, Marriage and Death Register, Church Records and 
Epitaphs of Lancaster, 1643-1850; 1891, History of the Town 
of Harvard; 1899, The Military Annals of Lancaster, 1740- 
1865; 1899, The Ninth Report of the Free Public Library 
Commission (an illustrated history of the Public Libraries of 
Massachusetts). Pamphlets: The Hoar Family in America 
and its English Ancestry; A Forgotten Patriot (General John 
Whitcomb) ; Mrs. Mary Rowlandson's Removes; The Public 
Libraries of Massachusetts; The Bibliography of Lancaster; 
also sundry addresses and magazine articles. 

As the genealogical fad is so rampant now, perhaps I ought 
to inform you that I am a direct descendant of the martyred 
Rebecca, the Salem witch, and consequently have no manner 
of respect for Cotton Mather. On my mother's side I trace my 
descent from Ruth, daughter of John Alden. But I don't be- 
long to any " patriotic " societies, so called, although two of my 
great-grandfathers wore swords at the battle of Bunker Hill. 

Here endeth a procession of trifles, paraded in obedience to 
your official summons — a verbose exhibit of egotism by a 
lonely old man. 

Yours very truly, 

Henry S. Nourse. 

Editorial Note. — Nourse died in his chair from heart- failure, wholly 
without warning, November 14, 1903. His will disposed of the bulk of his 

188 



Harvard Class of 1853 



property, as he had no relative but his elder sister to provide for, nearer 
than cousins, for the benefit of Harvard College. The fund was to bear 
his name, and to be held for the benefit of needy departments, or for the 
erection of a building. The Town Library of Lancaster also profited to 
the extent of $i,ooo, to be used for the care and increase of " Lancas- 
triana," but never to be applied to the purchase of fiction. He was born 
April 9, 1832. 

STEPHEN BUTTRICK NOYES, 

Son of George Rapall Noyes (H. U. 1818), and Eliza 
Wheeler (Buttrick) Noyes, was born at Brookfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, August 28, 1833. He was descended on his father's 
side from Nicholas Noyes, who arrived in New England in 
the " Elizabeth and Dorcas " in 1634, and settled in Newbury; 
and on his mother's side from William Buttrick, one of the 
first settlers and a prominent citizen of Concord. His great- 
grandfather was Major John Buttrick, who commanded the 
militiamen in the Concord Fight. When he was one year 
old his parents removed to Petersham, and on his father re- 
ceiving the appointment at Harvard, in 1840, of the Hancock 
Professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages, he 
went with them to Cambridge. 

He was fitted for college at the Hopkins Classical School 
and entered as Freshman in 1849. His Commencement part 
was an essay — " Grub Street." 

For some time during the first two years after his gradua- 
tion he served an apprenticeship in library work in the Boston 
Athenaeum under the supervision and instruction of the As- 
sistant Librarian, the erudite Ezra Abbot. On October 10, 
1855, he went to New York to become a clerk with the firm 
of Noyes & Whittlesey, dealers in bags, where he remained 
until the fall of 1857, then returning to Cambridge. Having 
applied for the position of Librarian of the Mercantile Library 
Association of Brooklyn, New York, which had just been 
organized, he went to that city on February 20, 1858, and re- 
ceived his appointment on March i. He supervised the ar- 
rangement of the books and issued a catalogue of the Library 
in the same year. The number of the volumes was in March, 
1859, 11,400; in March, i860, 14,260; in March, 1865, 
19,000. On September 28, 1865, he was offered a position 

189 



Harvard Class of 1853 



in the Library of Congress, which he dedined. On October 3 
following the Congressional Librarian, Ainsworth R. Spofford, 
made him a better offer, which he accepted. He passed nearly 
three years at Washington as one of the three Assistant 
Librarians of Congress. In the summer of 1868 he was unan- 
imously chosen to become again Librarian of the Mercantile 
Library of the City of Brooklyn. This position he held for 
the remainder of his life and in it did excellent work. He 
labored for about ten years in the preparation of " The Brook- 
lyn Library Catalogue," a work unrivalled in its system of 
cross-reference and used in other libraries than that for which 
it was prepared. It was published in 1880. 

In the summer of 1871 he made a voyage to Europe, pur- 
chasing many books for the Library. He sailed for Florida 
in search of health, December 20, 1884, and died at Deland 
in that State, March 8, 1885. 

He was a member of the Long Island Historical Society 
of Brooklyn, of the New England Society of Brooklyn, of 
which he was also Historiographer, and a corresponding mem- 
ber of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. 

He was married, October 20, 1870, to Sophia, daughter of 
Edward Anthony. Of this marriage there were two children : 
Annie Anthony, born December 4, 1871, and George Holland, 
who died aged 9 years. He was again married, on June 14, 
1882, to Susan Wilson, daughter of James Wylie, by whom 
he had a son, Sydney B. Noyes, born March 24, 1883. 

CHARLES JACKSON PAINE, 

Eldest son of Charles Gushing and Fanny Cabot (Jack- 
son) Paine, great-grandson of Robert Treat Paine, signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, and grandson of Judge 
Charles Jackson, of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, was 
born at Boston, August 26, 1833. 

He was fitted for college at the Boston Latin School, which 
he entered in 1843, ^^^ completed the regular five years' course 
in 1848, but being considered too young for college, he passed 
the autumn in duck-shooting at Beverly Farms, returned to 
the Latin School, and entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 

190 



Harvard Class of 1853 



During his college course he had narrow escapes from drown- 
ing, — once when he drifted for five hours disabled from 
chill, on the bottom of an upturned boat, and once when 
caught in the gale of August, 185 1, far outside of Cape Ann 
in a small half-decked sailboat. His part at Commencement 
was a Greek oration. 

Having studied law with Rufus Choate, he was admitted 
to the Suffolk Bar on September 15, 1856. After a visit to 
Europe in 1856 and 1857, in the course of which his classmate 
Shaw met him in Rome, he returned, went to St. Louis, and 
began a law-practice, but came back to Boston to continue it 
until the outbreak of the Civil War. 

On September 5, 1861, he was authorized to recruit a com- 
pany. He opened a recruiting office on Washington Street 
near Court Street, and on September 23 went into camp at 
Lynnfield. On the 8th of October he was mustered in as 
Captain of Company I, 226. Massachusetts Volunteers, known 
as Wilson's Regiment, and left Boston with that corps the 
same day. On the 22d of October he was at Hall's Hill, with 
the defences of the Capitol, and remained there the winter 
of 1861-62. In January, 1862, he was appointed by the War 
Department Major of the Eastern Bay State Regiment, after- 
wards the Massachusetts 30th, which he joined at Fortress 
Monroe, and with it went to Ship Island. This was one of 
the two Butler regiments over the regularity of whose en- 
listments there was much contention between General Butler 
and Governor Andrew. He was not confirmed in his expected 
office by the Governor, and never received a commission from 
Massachusetts. His stay at Ship Island was agreeable and 
rendered still more so by the presence of his classmate Pal- 
frey, engineer of the defences ; but he returned to Boston ill 
with typhoid fever. After the occupation of New Orleans, 
General Butler sent for Major Paine, who at once sailed for 
New Orleans, arriving September 3. Two days after he left, 
Governor Andrew sent for Paine to take command of the 
39th Massachusetts Volunteers with a commission as Major, 
a commission which was never issued. General Butler had 
opened a recruiting office in New Orleans, and Paine was com- 

191 



Harvard Class of 1853 



missioned Colonel of the 2d Louisiana Regiment (white) on 
September 5, 1862, and remained with this regiment until 
March, 1864. In the meantime, on December 15, 1862, 
Butler took leave of his troops and was replaced by Banks. 
While in command of this regiment, during the siege of Port 
Hudson, which lasted from May 24 to July 8, Paine led a 
brigade. 

The siege of Port Hudson was a piece of hard fighting 
under unusual difficulties — heat, malaria, and a deficiency 
of force — in which Paine was struck by the fragment of a 
shell, but not severely hurt. In this siege the 2d Louisiana 
especially distinguished itself. On the surrender two regi- 
ments of the entering column were commanded by Paine. 
Report of Paine's death alarmed his family and friends, but 
not for long. After this victory the 2d Louisiana was moved 
down the river to Donaldsonville, some fifty miles west of 
New Orleans, in a low, damp, hot country, where Paine ob- 
tained sick-leave of absence, and was at home from August 8 
to September 26. Returning, he reached Vermilion Bayou 
and took command of his brigade on October 8. After some 
time at Carrion Crow Bayou the 2d Louisiana, then at New 
Iberia, was ordered to be mounted. The process of breaking 
in the mustangs driven in from the prairies was curious. 
Paine wrote : " We have rich sights of it. When a man is 
on one (and then the pony is generally nearly broken) the 
rascal will generally stand still with six men pulling a rope 
and two more behind thrashing him. They won't eat or drink, 
often, for four or five days. They will strike out with all 
four legs at once. They are as quick as cats, and their hoofs 
are as sharp as claws." On November 7 Paine was appointed 
to the command of the 3d Brigade, Cavalry Division. In 
his brigade he had the 6th Regiment Missouri, all old " bor- 
der ruffians," but now most heartily on our side. " The 2d 
Louisiana, though from a rebel State, has no particular 
predilections; the 6th Missouri used to be pro-slavery Jay- 
Hawkers. They keep up the Jay-Hawking, but have changed 
sides." 

After spending the rest of the year at New Iberia, Paine 

192 



Harvard Class of 1853 



was moved to New Orleans, where he had command of a 
brigade of cavalry. This was the end of Paine's campaign- 
ing in Louisiana. He took another leave of absence, visited 
Boston, and after seeing General Butler at Fortress Monroe, 
returned to New Orleans, where he resigned as Colonel of 
the 2d Louisiana and was relieved from duty. Preferring to 
serve under Butler rather than under Banks, he joined that 
officer as volunteer aid-de-camp without pay at Fortress 
Monroe. On May 5 he was in Butler's Army of the James 
at Bermuda Hundred. Fighting began immediately and was 
continued incessantly. Towards the end of June President 
Lincoln visited the camp. The objective point of the move- 
ment of the Army of the James was Richmond, but it was 
temporarily arrested by the repulse, on May 15, of Butler at 
Drewry's Bluff, a strongly fortified position under command 
of Beauregard, but in that fight, Paine wrote, " We were not 
whipped." In August Paine took command of the 3d Divi- 
sion of the iSth Corps, Colored, later stationed at Deep 
Bottom, on the north side of the James. On September 29, 
in the movement across the James River, his command at- 
tacked the enemy's left on the Newmarket Road and captured 
their defences with complete success, adding so greatly to the 
prestige of the colored troops that his division was selected 
as one of the two ordered for service in both expeditions 
against Fort Fisher. It was for meritorious and valuable 
service at the capture of that fortress that he received the 
brevet-rank of Major-General in 1865. Paine's experience 
in that expedition was not so exciting as in that of the James. 
In the first attempt at Fort Fisher under Butler nothing was 
accomplished; the land troops were recalled and the fleet 
sailed to Beaufort, North Carolina. Of the second, under 
Terry, Paine wrote : " Fort Fisher was taken yesterday, Jan- 
uary 17, 1865; my division, however, was not engaged. The 
first order I received from General Terry was for ammuni- 
tion; the next was for shovels for our men to entrench 
themselves to hold what they had; the next to send Colonel 
Abbott's Brigade of the 24th Corps, which was temporarily 
under me; the next to send my strongest regiment and then 

193 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the brigade from which the last regiment came; then he sent 
word that the fort was taken. The first thing we did when 
we landed was to go with my division, without a guide, just 
at sundown, to push through the swamp to the river. My 
line was a mile long across the peninsula, facing Wilmington 
and three miles from the fort. Hoke's Division was known 
to be there, four brigades and quite strong ; but I got through 
all right and put up a good line of breastworks before morn- 
ing, which I have occupied since." It is fair to give Paine's 
opinion of Butler at Fort Fisher : " General Butler is relieved 
for not assaulting Fort Fisher. He was right entirely. The 
fort was then unharmed, where yesterday were sixty or eighty 
guns which were dismounted. We have two thousand more 
men, besides two thousand sailors (perhaps he could have 
had those then), and not one man too many. For two hours 
last night we thought we had some thousand too few. The 
fort could not by any possibility have been taken before, and 
we certainly should have had a tremendous cutting up if we 
had tried." Paine remained on his entrenched line, main- 
taining the most unbroken quiet from January i6 to February. 
General Schofield was sent by Grant from Nashville, and one 
of the objective points was the occupation of Wilmington. 
General Hoke, confronting Paine's Division, gradually re- 
treated with but little fighting, and by the end of February 
Paine was " in and out of " the place. Paine's Division re- 
mained near Wilmington, and while there he was commis- 
sioned Brevet Major-General of Volunteers. His division, 
now a part of General Terry's command, known as the loth 
Corps, joined in the advance on Goldsboro, to meet General 
Sherman's victorious army. Paine wrote : " Sherman has 
strong prejudices, and his particular one is against colored 
troops. I wonder what he will do with mine. Sherman's 
men looked at my darkies as a countryman would look at a 
menagerie, and said they had never seen them before, al- 
though they had heard of them." After the close of the 
War, Paine was for some time in command of the military 
district of New Berne in North Carolina, and was mustered 
out January 15, 1866. 

194 



Harvard Class of 1853 



After his return from the War he began to take an in- 
terest in the development and management of railroads. He 
was a director in the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and in 
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in its early days, and in 
the Mexican Central. Soon after his marriage in 1867, he 
bought an estate in Weston, where he has since passed a 
large part of the year. For many years he spent the summer 
months at Nahant, and has been a close student of all that 
pertains to yacht-designing and yacht-sailing. His first racing 
yacht was the " Halcyon," which he altered so that she won 
prizes over the fastest yachts then offered. He was one of a 
syndicate which built the " Puritan," and he was also a mem- 
ber of the executive committee which had charge of her when 
she successfully defended the cup against the " Genesta." In 
the following year General Paine alone built the " Mayflower," 
and defended the cup against the " Galatea," and in 1887 
he produced the " Volunteer " which defeated the " Thistle." 
Mr. Burgess, his designer, attributed to Mr. Paine the whole 
merit of construction in every detail, and called himself simply 
Mr. Paine's executive officer. After the third series of races 
Mayor O'Brien tendered a public reception to Paine and 
Burgess in Faneuil Hall, of which an account was published 
by the city, entitled " The Paine-Burgess Testimonial." 

In 1897 Paine went, with U. S. Senator Wolcott and Mr. 
Stevenson, formerly Vice-President, on a special mission to 
ascertain the views of the governments of France, Great 
Britain, and Germany regarding international bimetallism, 

Paine married, on the 26th of March, 1867, Julia Bryant, 
daughter of John Bryant, Jr., of Boston. She died September 
4, 1 90 1. Their children were: Sumner, born May 13, 1868, 
died April 18, 1904; John Bryant, born April 19, 1870 (H. U. 
1891); Mary Anna Lee, born July 23, 1873, married to 
Frederick Winsor, June 18, 1894; Charles Jackson, Jr., born 
June 17, 1876 (H. U. 1897), married to Edith M. Johnson, 
January 5, 1902; Helen, bom June 25, 1881, married to 
Thatcher R. Kimball (H. U. 1895); Georgiana, born De- 
cember 23, 1888; Frank Cabot, born July 9, 1890. 

195 



Harvard Class of 1853 



GEORGE STURGIS PAINE, 

Son of Frederick William and Anne Gushing (Stur- 
Gis) Paine, was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, June 4, 

1833. 

He received his earlier education in his native town at the 
schools of Mrs, Sarah B. Wood and Mr. Austin Fitch, and was 
prepared for college at the Classical High School. He entered 
Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 

After graduating in 1853 he visited Europe, travelled exten- 
sively over the Continent and in England, and resided for a 
long time in Paris, perfecting himself in the French language 
and attending lectures at the University. Returning to this 
country, he again visited Europe in 1858, travelled in different 
parts not visited before, and resided a long time in Italy, eight 
months being passed in Rome. There he went a great deal 
into Italian society, and had the honor of a private audience 
and long personal conversation with Pius Ninth, and made the 
acquaintance of Cardinal Antonelli, then prime minister, visit- 
ing him on invitation and receiving from his own hand his 
autograph and portrait. After making visits among friends 
and kinsfolk in England he returned to this country, and began 
preparations for entering the ministry of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church. He resided nine months at the General Theo- 
logical Seminary in the city of New York, and was ordained 
Deacon in 1861, at Emmanuel Church, Boston. The greater 
portion of his studies were pursued privately. On January 22, 
1862, he was ordained Priest at All Saints' Church, Worcester, 
by Bishop Eastburn. 

Paine never became the settled rector of a parish, but offi- 
ciated in sundry places for various lengths of time, ranging 
from one day to two years. At the end of 1888 he resigned 
the office of Secretary and Treasurer of the Central Convoca- 
tion of the Diocese of Massachusetts, a position which he had 
held during the previous ten years. After his mother's death 
in 1892, the condition of whose health had detained him at 
Worcester for several years, he left that city for New York, 
in January, 1893, where he spent two years, and in 1895 he 
sailed for Europe for an indefinite absence, finally taking up 

196 



Harvard Class of 1853 



a permanent residence in London, sometimes, however, pass- 
ing weeks or months on the Continent. 

Paine's contributions to literature have been of a fugitive 
character, confined mostly to newspapers, and upon some 
reigning topic of the day. 

Paine died so very suddenly at London, on August 2, 1908, 
that an inquest was found necessary. He was never married. 

JOHN CARVER PALFREY, 

Son of John Gorham (H. U. 181 5) and Mary Ann 
(Hammond) Palfrey, was born at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, December 25, 1833, his father being at the time Profes- 
sor of Biblical Literature in the Harvard Divinity School. 
A paternal great-grandfather was Colonel William Palfrey, 
Aid to Washington and Paymaster-General of the Continental 
Army. The family traces back to the Peter Palfrey who, in 
1628, received Governor Endecott on his landing at Salem and, 
later, was one of a committee of six charged by their towns- 
men to secure the placing of the first College, which after- 
wards became Harvard, at a spot on the seashore between 
Salem and Marblehead. 

Palfrey was fitted for college partly at the Boston Latin 
School, which he entered in the year 1844, and partly at the 
Hopkins Classical School, Cambridge. He was admitted at 
Harvard as Freshman in 1849. He maintained a high rank 
in the class, and the part assigned to him for Commencement 
was a dissertation, — " Protestantism in Spain." It was not 
delivered, for he left college in June, before Class Day, after 
passing a special examination for a degree. During the Sen- 
ior year he had received the appointment of a cadetship at 
West Point, then in the gift of Lorenzo Sabine, Esq., member 
of Congress from the Middlesex District. He reported as 
Cadet June 18, 1853. 

In the tribute paid to his memory by Mr. Charles Francis 
Adams, President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, he 
says of Palfrey's admission to the military academy that he 
went there exceptionally well prepared, especially in mathe- 
matics, and adds : " It is a somewhat humorous fact, and curi- 

197 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ously illustrative of what may be called the * outs ' of the ex- 
amination test that, although the entrance requirements for 
West Point are of a most elementary character, it was for a 
time very questionable whether Palfrey would succeed in pass- 
ing them. He had got too far beyond that state of things. 
Nevertheless he did scrape into the Academy and once there, 
with his admirable preparation and studious and regular tem- 
perament, he soon established himself at the head of his class 
and there remained first in rank until he left the Academy in 
1857. According to his academical military record he served 
the first year as private, the second year as Corporal, the third 
year he was Quartermaster, and the fourth Ranking First 
Lieutenant," 

On leaving he was appointed to the United States Corps of 
Engineers with the rank of Brevet Second Lieutenant, and as- 
signed to duty as Assistant to the Board of Engineers in Bos- 
ton for the defence of the Atlantic coast, of which Colonel 
Sylvanus Thayer was President. He was commissioned Sec- 
ond Lieutenant of Engineers, December 31, 1857. In 1859 he 
was ordered to Portland, Maine, as Assistant to Captain D. 
Kurtz, of the United States Engineers, whom he succeeded in 
about six months as Engineer in Charge of Construction and 
Repairs of Forts on Coasts of New Hampshire and Maine, 
the principal construction being that of Fort Gorges in Port- 
land Harbor. 

At the breaking out of the War he was ordered to proceed 
by sea to Fortress Monroe, then menaced, as Assistant to 
Colonel Gustavus Adolphus de Russy, and in May, 1861, was 
sent to Newport News to assist in fortifying that place, on its 
first occupation by General Butler. On the James River he 
contracted a malarial fever which incapacitated him from the 
service, and he was on sick-leave from July to October. In 
this interval, on August 3, he was commissioned First Lieu- 
tenant, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and, when sufficiently 
recovered, he returned to Fortress Monroe. On the 29th of 
November he was ordered to Washington to receive instruc- 
tions for proceeding to Ship Island, Mississippi, to assume 
charge there in .preparation for the expedition against New 

198 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Orleans. He arrived at Ship Island, February 21, 1862. The 
island had been evacuated by the Confederates in September, 
1 86 1, and was then in the occupation of the First Detachment 
of General Butler's New Orleans Expedition, under Brigadier- 
General John W. Phelps, to whom he acted as Aid until Gen- 
eral Butler's arrival in March, when he was transferred to his 
staff. The works at Ship Island continued to be under his 
charge until the end of the war. 

In May, 1862, after the fall of New Orleans, he was ordered 
to Forts Jackson and St. Philip below that city on the Missis- 
sippi, the scene of Farragut's famous exploit, to repair and put 
them in condition for defence. In the autumn he projected 
and located a fort at Donaldsonville, at the outlet of the 
Mississippi into Bayou Lafourche, which was of importance 
in the following summer by enabling a garrison of about 120 
men to repel the attack of 1500 Confederates. Here he con- 
tracted a second severe fever of which he felt the effects for a 
long time. 

On January 5, 1863, he took charge, in addition to his 
other duties, of " all Permanent Fortifications for Defence 
of New Orleans," and was stationed in that city, a charge 
which lasted till October 5, 1865. On March 3, 1863, he was 
commissioned Captain, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., and in 
the same month ordered to take charge of all field works of 
the Department of the Gulf. On May 30 he was ordered by 
telegraph, after the first repulse at Port Hudson, to join the 
headquarters of the army under Banks, then besieging that 
city. He then served as Assistant Engineer until two days 
after the repulse of the second assault, when, on June 17, 
he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Army and held 
this position until the place surrendered on July 8, when 
he returned to New Orleans to his previous duties. He 
was in charge of all the field works of the Department 
of the Gulf from March, 1863, to June, 1864; Assistant 
Engineer of that Department from January 5, 1863, to May 
7, 1864. 

In April, 1864, after the battles of Pleasant Hill and Sabine 
Cross Roads, he was ordered to join General Banks's army, 

199 



Harvard Class of 1853 



then on the retreat from the unsuccessful Red River Expedi- 
tion, as Chief Engineer. He went to Alexandria on that 
river to meet it, and there distinguished himself in one of the 
most memorable and spectacular achievements of the war — 
the construction of the famous dams in the Red River by 
which the shallow stream was confined within a narrow 
channel and thereby made sufficiently deep to float the squad- 
ron detained above Alexandria, and save it from an otherwise 
inevitable abandonment. Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, 
of the 4th Wisconsin Regiment, serving on General Franklin's 
staff as Engineer, has received almost all the credit of pro- 
posing and carrying out the scheme. The writer in the 
Century Company's History, Lieutenant-Colonel Irwin, says: 
" Stupendous as the work looked, the engineer officers of the 
army reported it as practicable," and adds in a footnote: 
" Especially Captain John C. Palfrey, United States Engineer, 
who had made a careful and complete survey of the rapids." 
Captain Palfrey's great modesty makes us suspect that much 
more might have been said. He returned with Banks's army 
in May to New Orleans. 

In August following. Palfrey volunteered to join the ex- 
pedition under Farragut against Fort Gaines in Mobile Bay 
as Assistant Engineer and, after its surrender on the 7th of 
that month, he returned to New Orleans. In a week he was 
ordered to return to Mobile Bay, where he acted as Chief 
Engineer in the operations against Fort Morgan until it was 
surrendered on the 23d. 

For distinguished services at Forts Gaines and Morgan he 
was, by commission, dated August 23, brevetted Major in 
the United States Army. In March, 1865, he was assigned 
to duty with the 13th Army Corps as Assistant Inspector 
General and Chief Engineer, with rank of Lieutenant-Colonel 
of Volunteers, the only appointment in the Volunteer forces 
which he received. He accompanied the expedition against 
the city of Mobile under Major-General Canby, served against 
Spanish Fort until its evacuation on April 9, was present at 
the successful assault on Blakely the next day, and took part 
in the occupation of Mobile April 12. He received three 

200 



Harvard Class of 1853 



brevet commissions in the regular army, Lieutenant-Colonel, 
Colonel, and Brigadier-General, all of the date of March 26, 
1865. 

After this he served with the same corps in Texas during 
May and August, and v^^as engaged in reconstructing the San 
Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad. He obtained leave of 
absence on October 5, which lasted until he resigned May i, 
1866. 

On leaving the army Palfrey went to Lowell as Super- 
intendent of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. In 
1874 he resigned that position and was chosen Treasurer of 
the Manchester Mills, moved to Boston, still living at Bel- 
mont in summer, and was married. He resigned his treas- 
urership in October, 1891, leaving the company in a prosper- 
ous condition. Affairs of a more private and family nature 
now demanded his attention, but in October, 1900, he added 
to these cares the treasurership of the ancient Boston Pier, 
or Long Wharf Corporation. 

He has been Vice-President of the Webster National Bank 
and Senior Vice-Commander of the Loyal Legion. He suc- 
ceeded his brother Francis W., in 1890, as member of the 
Society of the Cincinnati. He was a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society from December 11, 1902, until 
his resignation on account of ill health, December 2, 1905. 
He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Military 
Historical Society, and his only literary productions are the 
papers he contributed to its proceedings. To quote Mr. 
Adams again, " His papers related almost entirely to mili- 
tary episodes in which he himself had taken a part, and con- 
cerning which he was thoroughly informed. They were 
therefore of real historical value. His writing was character- 
istic of the man, straightforward, solid, to the point." The 
following are the titles of the papers, only one of which is yet 
in print : 

"The Siege of Yorktown " (at which Palfrey was not 
present), communicated January 14, 1878. 

" Copy of a Report of the Siege of Port Hudson," made by 
Palfrey to Major D. C. Houston. 

201 



Harvard Class of 1853 



" General Sherman's Plans after the Fall of Atlanta," read 
April 12, 1886. 

" Capture of Mobile." 

" Assault of Port Hudson," February, 1891. 

Palfrey was married at Belmont, on October 21, 1874, to 
Adelaide Eliza, daughter of Samuel R. Payson. Their chil- 
dren are: John Gorham, born October 2, 1875 (H. U. 1896) ; 
Francis W., born March 2j, 1877 (H. U. 1898) ; Hannah G., 
born December 13, 1881. 

Palfrey died after a painful illness, January 29, 1906, at 
Boston, leaving a widow and the three children just mentioned. 

EDWARD PEARCE, 

Son of Edward and Harriet (Bullock) Pearce, was 
born at Providence, Rhode Island, July 21, 1833. 

He was sent to school at an early age, had various instruc- 
tors, and was fitted for college under the care of Albert Hark- 
ness, then teacher in the senior department of the Providence 
High School. He entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849, ^"^^^ 
while a diligent student generally, noted for the fluency of his 
recitations and taking a high rank, he was especially distin- 
guished by his talent, not to say genius, for mathematics. Of 
him and the select few who took that difficult branch of learn- 
ing as an elective his classmate Crocker wrote in after years : 
" Our mathematical division was small. There were, besides 
myself, Edward Pearce, our best mathematician, James M. 
Peirce, the professor's son, Eliot, Erving, Kendall, Hosmer, 
and Palfrey. The professor used to lecture us after covering 
the blackboard full of his figures and equations, so that it was 
very hard for us to follow him, especially when, as sometimes 
happened, he discovered he had made a mistake, and rushed 
back to his work and rubbed out and altered numerous chalk 
marks here and there. Indeed I doubt whether the rest of us 
could have managed to get on had it not been for Edward 
Pearce, who was always able to follow where the professor 
led, and who was ever ready and willing to help the rest of 
us out of the confusion and bewilderment into which we were 
continually falling." His part at Commencement was an 

202 



Harvard Class of 1853 



English Oration, of which the great mathematician Charles 
Frederic Gauss was the subject. 

After leaving college he spent two years in travel in Europe 
and, on his return, entered a banker's office in Boston for the 
purpose of learning finance and business methods. His taste 
for business, however, was not equal to his love for science, 
and he accepted the position of Tutor in Mathematics at Har- 
vard, which he held from 1858 to 1861. He then went to 
Paris to study the highest order of mathematics, and remained 
in Europe about three years. 

But circumstances did not permit him to lead a life devoted 
merely to science. The care of family property devolved upon 
him, and from 1865 to 1883 he was occupied in operating the 
Stillwater Woolen Mill, owned mainly by his family and of 
which he ultimately became sole owner. From the time of his 
father's death in 1881, his attention was given to the man- 
agement of the property interests of his mother and of a 
maiden aunt, but, says his brother, Mr. Henry Pearce of Prov- 
idence, " all business interests were with him secondary in im- 
portance to the study of mathematics, which he pursued in- 
defatigably, although he seems to have felt that he had no 
message for the world and never published anything." 

His attainments were recognized by the Faculty of Brown 
University and elsewhere. He was elected a Fellow of the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences on February 9, 1864. 
He corresponded with eminent mathematicians, Sylvester and 
others, but, with a knowledge, personal or through their works, 
of all the great men who have distinguished themselves in his 
favorite science, there was none, says his brother, whom he 
regarded with such reverence as his former teacher, Professor 
Benjamin Peirce. 

He was at times much afflicted with gout, so that he could 
not move hand or foot. It was when recovering from an at- 
tack that he wrote the only note which the Class Secretary 
ever had the pleasure of receiving from him. He was at that 
time, January 2, 1889, evidently not in a happy frame of mind. 
He writes : " Referring to your favor of 22d inst. I would 
say that I have been and still am the Treasurer 6f the Still- 

203 



Harvard Class of 1853 



water Mill, and have no other business. The mill has been 
quiet for some time past, to stop its power of doing harm. 
As for myself I am played out just now, — am pulling through 
an attack of gout. I have no family, never had and do not 
expect to have. I should not attend any class dinner." 

But a brighter future was awaiting him. Something hap- 
pened to enliven his existence and turn his thoughts into a 
more cheerful current. A few years after the letter just 
quoted, we find him giving an " unusually fine party " at the 
New Hampshire summer hotel, the " Moosilauke," with pro- 
gressive whist for the first part of the evening and a German 
for the remainder. The public rooms were decorated with 
flowers and greenery and the toilets made a festive scene. 
The German was led by Mr. Ross McPherson and Miss Saw- 
yer of St. Paul, while Mr. Pearce contented himself with lead- 
ing the Virginia Reel. " The success of the evening proved 
that he had paid the greatest attention to every detail that could 
secure the enjoyment of his guests." Now what is the expla- 
nation of all this expansion in the feelings of an elderly bache- 
lor? The inference is irresistible when we learn that Miss 
Sawyer of St. Paul, who led the German, was to become Mrs. 
Edward Pearce. On December ii, 1894, being then in his 
sixty-second year, he married at St. Paul, Minnesota, 
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward and Frances Sawyer, of that 
place. 

He died very suddenly of apoplexy at Providence on Janu- 
ary 14, 1899, leaving a widow but no issue. 

WILLIAM HENRY PECK, 

Son of Colonel Samuel Hopkins and Sarah A. D. 
(Holmes) Peck, was born at Augusta, Georgia, September 
30, 1830. His father was of Connecticut origin and seventh 
in descent from Deacon Paul Peck, who came from England 
and settled at Hartford in 1635. He served in the Mexican 
War in the 6th Louisiana Regiment, and was a very active 
and prosperous business man in ante-bellum days. His mother 
was a daughter of Nathaniel Nesbit Holmes, of a Georgia 
family. 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



When seven years old, Peck was taken to New Haven, 
Connecticut, under the care of a grandmother. Here he 
passed nearly six years, four at the boarding-school of Mears 
Stiles and Truman French, during which he gained a slight 
knowledge of the French and Latin languages, and made two 
visits to his home. While at New Haven, he was, as he says, 
" drowned " in Mill River, but fortunately resuscitated. 
From subsequent repeated escapes of the same kind in various 
waters, he came to the conclusion that he was not one of those 
born to be drowned. 

In 1843 he was taken by land to East Florida, with a party 
of the first settlers on Indian River. During the two years 
of his residence here, off and on, he frequently visited Cuba. 
His life from March 9, 1845, to December 23, 1847, was 
passed at Georgetown, Kentucky, where he was a student at 
Georgetown College, and a Cadet of the Western Military 
Institution. In the waters of Elkhorn Creek he was a second 
time " drowned " to insensibility. 

During the years 1848 and 1849 P^^k was rapidly moved 
about from Georgetown to Butler County, Alabama, New 
Orleans, Washington, D. C, Cincinnati, Ohio — where he 
was attacked by the prevailing epidemic, the cholera — to 
Washington again, and finally to Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
where he arrived on August 30, 1849, and was admitted 
Freshman at Harvard. Finding himself insufficiently pre- 
pared, as might have been expected from his nomadic life, 
he followed the studies of his class at Hingham for a year, 
under the tuition of the Rev. Oliver Stearns, and joined the 
class as Sophomore in 1850. 

After graduating in 1853, Peck's life was divided into two 
periods — first, of teaching, combined, for part of the time, 
with journalism; and, secondly, of authorship. In September, 
1854, he was elected First Assistant in the New Orleans Pub- 
lic Schools. 

On the 20th of October following, he was married at New 
Orleans to Mona Blake Kenny, granddaughter of Sir Thomas 
Blake, of Menbough Castle, County Galway, Ireland. His 
daughter Bertha Elizabeth, who was born August 9, 1855, 

205 



Harvard Class of 1853 



being the first-born of the offspring of the class, was the 
recipient of the Class Cup, a substitute for the cradle. 

In 1856 he was elected Principal of Public Schools. In 
December, 1856, he became Professor of Oratory, Elocution, 
and Belles-lettres in the University of Louisiana — a chair 
which he resigned in 1858. He then carried on large schools 
of his own, in i860. 

In that year he became the President of the Masonic Female 
College at Greenville, Georgia. While there he was editor and 
proprietor in Atlanta of an eight-paged paper, in the style of 
the " New York Ledger," called the ** Georgia Weekly," which 
he continued to publish during the whole of the War, getting 
it out without fail once a week. It was changed to a folio 
when paper became scarce, and was presented sometimes on 
wall paper and sometimes on brown wrapping paper. It was 
perforce remarkably strong in its secession proclivities, else its 
owners, as he said, " would have walked, not in sackcloth 
and ashes, but in tar and feathers; for the country was in- 
sane in those days." Perhaps they liked journals printed on 
cartridge-paper. 

In 1863 he resigned the Presidency of " Greenville " and 
accepted the Professorship of Natural Science and Modem 
Languages in Le Vert College, Talbotton, Georgia. In 1864 
the citizens of the county (Talbot) asked Professor Peck to 
take charge of the Collinsworth Institute, which was suffering 
for the want of teachers, he being exempt from military ser- 
vice because of near-sightedness. He did so, resigned this 
charge when the War ended, and, in 1866, sold his paper and 
started on a career of authorship at New Orleans, writing 
popular fiction for the periodicals. 

The profession thus begun was continued with the most 
substantial results in New York, where he bought a house in 
1868. He is said to have received $15,000 for three stories 
written for the " New York Weekly," and he entered into an 
arrangement with Brown of the " Ledger " which lasted for 
more than a score of years and from which he derived, it is 
said, an annual income of $10,000. 

Among the objects of interest at a later period, in his home 

206 



Harvard Class of 1853 



at Atlanta, the one which he exhibited with most pride was a 
battered gold pen with which he earned in a single year 
$13,000. 

Peck's best-known work is " The Stone-cutter of Lisbon," a 
historical novel of the great earthquake in 1755. He wrote 
many other popular novels : " Luke Hammond, the Miser," 
" The Locksmith of Lyons," " Martin Marduke," " Siballa, 
the Sorceress," " The McDonalds, or the Ashes of a Southern 
Home," " The Confederate Flag on the Ocean," and a long 
list besides. 

His writings have been praised as vivid and picturesque, 
full of variety of incident, marked by the intensity of plot and 
dramatic interest which characterize the works of Wilkie 
Collins. 

In 1875 the state of his wife's health, and her desire to be 
again at the South, caused him to settle in Atlanta. There are 
many testimonies to the attractions of the home which he there 
established, and to the delightful hospitality which he with his 
wife and daughters dispensed for ten years. 

As his wife's health required a change of climate, he left 
Atlanta for Charleston in 1885, and in February, 1886, pur- 
chased a hundred acres of orange-growing land at Courtney, 
Merritt's Island, Indian River, Florida, and took up his resi- 
dence in the village of Cocoa, nearly opposite. Here he spent 
the remaining years of his life, cultivating his oranges and 
enjoying the outdoor sports and amusements which the neigh- 
borhood afforded. 

In September, 1891, his wife died suddenly at Atlanta. 
Five months later, on February 4, 1892, his own death oc- 
curred at South Jacksonville, of heart failure, hastened by a 
severe cold, at the residence of his son-in-law, Harold E. 
Turner, Six children survived him : 

Bertha Elizabeth, born August 9, 1855; married (ist) 
George Schaefor of Hampton, Georgia; (2d) Harold E. Tur- 
ner, an English barrister. 

Beatrice Marion, born October 22, 1856; married Dr. H. E. 
Dugas, of Atlanta. 

Myrtis Virginia, born November 10, 1859. 

207 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Mona Byruina, born April 7, 1861. 
Daisy Albertine, born November 7, 1862. 
Samuel Henry, born August 16, 1864. 

JAMES MILLS PEIRCE, 

Son of Benjamin Peirce (H. U. 1829) and Sarah Hunt 
(Mills) Peirce, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 
May I, 1834, his father being at that time University Profes- 
sor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. His mother 
was a daughter of Elijah Hunt Mills of Northampton, a lead- 
ing lawyer and, in 1797, a graduate of Williams College, 
which honored him with its LL.D. After a preliminary ele- 
vation to the Speakership of the Massachusetts House of Rep- 
resentatives, upon a vote well-nigh unanimous, Mr. Mills was 
elected to the State Senate in 181 1, and to Congress in 181 5, 
and then to the seat in the Federal Senate, afterwards vacated 
by his retirement in 1827, which made way for the first term 
of the Senatorship of Daniel Webster. Rear Admiral Davis, 
U. S. N., married another daughter. Senator Mills estab- 
lished at Northampton one of the very early schools, like that 
at Litchfield, Connecticut, for the training of students in the 
profession of the law. He died at Northampton in 1829. 

James Mills's grandfather, Benjamin Peirce (H. U. 1801), 
was, from the year 1826 to the time of his death in 1831, the 
College Librarian, and was the author of a " History of Har- 
vard University, from its Foundation to the Period of the 
American Revolution," published after his death under the 
editorship of his friend, John Pickering. 

Except for Browne, Peirce was the youngest of the class, 
and he was a tutor in his twentieth year, and lived to be the 
oldest member of the Faculty. At the age of four James 
Mills was sent to the school of Miss Emily Jennison, who, he 
said, endeared herself to a whole generation of Cambridge 
boys and girls by her kindly nature, and there he spent several 
years profitably and delightfully. On June 2, 1842, he joined 
the Hopkins Classical School in Cambridge, of which Mr. 
E. B. Whitman was Principal, and there completed his prepa- 
ration for Harvard College, entering as Freshman in 1849, 

208 



Harvard Class of ]sr>3 



where he studied dih"gently. \n his Junior year he took the 
First I'>owdoin Prize for an JCnj^h'sh (hssertation, Animidown 
receiving the second. In his Senior year he took another. In 
his last summer vacation, July 28, 1852, he barely escaped 
with his life from the burning wreck of the North River 
steamboat " Henry Clay," which took fire while racing be- 
tween Albany and New York just above the Highlands. The 
scene was appalling, and nearly one hutidred persons [)erished, 
among them being a sister of IJawthorne. Peirce swam 
ashore, and his telegram reached his father twenty hours be- 
fore the Boston papers announced the disaster. 

His part at Commencement was an luiglish oration — " The 
Relations of Mathematics to Modern Science." This was a 
timely recognition of a turn of mind already plain, for it could 
no longer be said of him, if ever, slat nominis umbra. Of his 
college days he wrote in the Class Book words which have a 
pathetic interest now that he is gone. He said, sfjcaking of 
himself in the third person: "In spite of all tliat has been 
disagreeable in his college course, there is no part of his 
happy life in which he has experienced so much real enjoy- 
ment. He remembers with especial pleasure the Junior and 
Senior years, and looks forward with the most heartfelt re- 
gret to the final scattering of the class. It is past hope tliat 
the whole class will ever be brought together again, but he 
trusts he may not lose sight of one of its members as long as 
he lives." And for more than fifty years he has shown the 
same friendly interest, never failing of a class dinner or other 
fraternal function, and entertaining the class at tea at the Cam- 
bridge home on the afternoon of its fiftieth anniversary. 

After leaving college he passed the academic year of 1853- 
54 in the Harvard Law School, but by the end of it seems to 
have abandoned any idea he may have had of adopting the 
law as a profession. He had begun to interest himself in 
other studies than the law, and obtained the Bowdoin Prize 
in 1854 for a Resident Graduate's Dissertation on the subject 
of "The Character and Philosophical Opinions of Malc- 
branche," in which he dealt with abstruse problems of phi- 
losophy' This essay appeared later as an article in the 

209 



Harvard Class of 1853 



" Monthly Religious Magazine " for June, 1856, edited by the 
Rev. Frederick D. Huntington. 

At the beginning of his second year after graduation, 1854- 
55, he was appointed Tutor in Mathematics at Harvard, and 
held the position for four years, until July, 1858. In the 
mean time he entered the Harvard Divinity School in March, 
1857, and at about the same time published his first book, " A 
Text Book of Analytical Geometry." He completed his course 
at the Divinity School, and received his degree on Com- 
mencement, 1859, when he delivered an essay on " Nature 
and the Supernatural." He was a Proctor from the summer 
of 1858 until that of 1861, with a temporary appointment as 
Tutor in the summer of i860. Between July, 1859, and Sep- 
tember, 1 86 1, he preached in various pulpits, but, whether he 
found the outlook discouraging or began to doubt his own 
vocation, the clerical profession was given up, and the begin- 
ning of the academic year of 1861 found him settled down as 
Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, in what was 
to be his life-work. He followed preaching long enough to 
see that the service his father had done so much to recommend 
was more to his liking. But his efforts in the pulpit were by 
no means without success. When he officiated at King's 
Chapel, he won such high approval as that of Judge Charles 
Jackson, and he preached with acceptance at Salem and at 
Charleston, South Carolina. 

He was promoted to be University Professor of Mathe- 
matics in 1869, and Perkins Professor of Astronomy and 
Mathematics in 1885, the latter of which offices he held until 
his death. From 1872 to 1890 he was Secretary of the Aca- 
demic Council; from 1890 to 1895 Dean of the Graduate 
Schools; from 1895 to 1898 Dean of the Faculty of Arts and 
Sciences. Peirce was no slave to the austerity of exact sci- 
ence, but, like his father, retained a lively interest in matters 
of philosophy, literature, poetry, music, and the drama. 

A friendly obituary notice of him said : " The death of 
Professor James Mills Peirce of Harvard University removes 
a figure from Boston-Cambridge haunts and society almost as 
familiar and beloved as any of the landmarks of either place. 

210 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Though devoted to the abstruse sciences of Mathematics and 
Astronomy, he had a strong leaning for esthetics, and a joy- 
ous and scholarly appreciation in all the fine arts. With all 
his learning, and all his varied connoisseurship, and all his 
vogue and distinction in society, he was the most democratic 
and genial of men, friend to any one who was in the least 
degree interesting or was any way in need of his countenance 
and a friendly hand. It is rare that the second generation 
from so great a genius as Professor Benjamin Peirce bears 
up so well as did Professor James Peirce in the overshadowing 
fame of his father. But no one could say that the inherited 
mantle of professor was not worn by him with immense dig- 
nity as well as with the sweetness and simplicity of one to the 
manner born." 

Professor William E. Byerly, in the notice of Peirce con- 
tained in the " Harvard Graduates Magazine " for June, 1906, 
after having described the active part which Peirce took in all 
the reforms made during his fifty years of service and his 
eighteen years as executive officer of the Graduate School, 
gives the following account of his teaching: 

" In his own department he was no narrow specialist. His 
mathematical knowledge was broad as well as profound, and 
was lavished on his teaching instead of being spent in research. 
Its record is to be found, not in the memoirs of learned so- 
cieties, but in the note-books of his students. His courses 
covered a very wide range, and every course was a masterpiece. 

" As a lecturer he had few equals, speaking always without 
notes, but yet with a clearness, precision, and polish that 
would have been remarkable in a written address. 

" He disliked to adopt a text book, or even to keep careful 
notes in a course, lest it should tend to become stereotyped, 
with the result that, no matter how often he taught the same 
subject, his treatment of it was never twice alike. There was 
the same freshness and spontaneity in his twentieth set of 
lectures as in his first." 

Peirce died, March 21, 1906, of pneumonia, after a few 
days' illness. He was never married. His published works 
were: 

211 



Harvard Class of 1853 



A Text Book of Analytical Geometry, on the Basis of Pro- 
fessor Peirce's Treatise. Cambridge, 1857. 

Introduction to Analytic Geometry. Cambridge, 1869. 

Three and Four Place Tables of Logarithmic and Trigo- 
nometric Functions. Boston, 1871. 

The Elements of Logarithms, with an Explanation of the 
Three and Four Place Tables of Logarithmic and Trigono- 
metric Functions. Boston, 1873. 

References to Analytic Geometry — In Harvard College 
Library Bulletin, 1878-79. Vol. I. 

Mathematical Tables, chiefly to Four Figures : First Series. 
Boston, 1879. 

An Outline of the Elements of Plane Analytical Geometry 
for the Use of Students in Mathematics, C 1887-88. Cam- 
bridge, March, 1888. 

Also the article, " Quaternions," in Johnson's New Univer- 
sal Cyclopedia. New York, 1877. 

He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, a Member of the St. Botolph Club and of the Shelley 
Society of Boston, of the Players' Club, University Club, and 
Harvard Club of New York. 

Editorial Note. — In a sketch of Peirce's career as college officer, con- 
tributed to the Proceedings of the Colonial Society, his classmate and col- 
league Hill was able to do justice better than any one to some features of 
the story, and has not failed to render a cordial tribute, giving him credit 
for a full share in the reforms which signalized the Eliot regime. But it 
is unfortunate that the classmate who was ordained to write for print a 
general characterization of the Professor should have been equipped with 
so limited a knowledge of the man as to take for his guide the diary of 
another. I know him better. While Hill complains that there was a great 
gulf between the P's and the H's in the alphabetical seating of the class, 
it happens that the P's and the R's were not even divided by a Q. 

The fact that classmates of such varied standing as Eliot, King and Ran- 
toul filled, with Professors Goodwin, Byerly, Clifford, Fiske and Paine, 
the place of pallbearers at his funeral, ought to be enough to testify to the 
catholicity of Peirce's nature. 

If the private diary which chronicles our college days makes but one 
allusion to Peirce, as Professor Hill tells us, the omission is due to no de- 
fect of his. No man was more genial in his advances nor stronger nor 
more constant in his attachments. If there were those in the class who 
could venture to overlook such qualities as his. we were better stocked 
with the cardinal virtues than I had supposed. Perhaps his living out of 
the college Yard helped along the notion that he was a recluse. My knowl- 

212 



Harvard Class of 1853 



edge of Peirce, like Hill's, dates from 1849, but his house happens to be the 
only one in Cambridge in which, before the War, I ever passed a night. 
We had tastes in common, and in many of his tastes he was an enthusiast. 
He was given to society. He took a leading part in the parlor-dramas 
which were frequent in Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell's hospitable rooms 
across Quincy Street, and there he maintained such neighborly relations 
that, when a son died in the War, he was asked to contribute to Colonel 
Thomas Wentworth Higginson's "Harvard Memorial Biographies" the fine 
appreciation of Colonel Charles Russell Lowell which appears there. From 
elocutionary contests he never shrank, taking the Second Boylston Prize 
in his Senior year, and at the close of the Freshman year having such faith 
in a theory of the Art of Speech to which he had devoted thought, that 
his enthusiasm became infectious and we embarked together in the trial 
for a Boylston Declamation Prize. Neither of us was rewarded with any 
sort of notice, although I had won prizes at the Latin School, and although 
we felt sure of all the consideration due us, because Chief Justice Shaw, 
the embodiment of fair play, who knew us both for associates of his son, 
and who heard the best of speaking in his Court, had a voice in the award. 
But the humor of the situation came to my relief when, a little later, I 
stumbled upon Professor Benjamin Peirce and my father, with their heads 
together in the rear of Harvard Hall, condoling with one another and, no 
doubt, lamenting the decline of oratory in our great institutions of 
learning. 

While we were students, the practice of going on the stage as super- 
numeraries was just coming into vogue. It was the day of the advent of 
the Italian Opera in Boston. I remember the Havana Troupe at the new 
Howard Athenaeum — a structure which I had seen built where the Taber- 
nacle of the Millerites had stood, and where, after the " Day of Wrath " 
had been indefinitely postponed, I had seen in turn the caucus and the 
circus. Peirce and I were frequenters of the theatre. Shaw was often a 
third, and sometimes Dwight another. We had heard plays and operas 
together in the old Federal Street Theatre. We had seen the Tremont 
Theatre removed, and the Museum built, and the elder Booth and Wilkes 
Booth playing there. We had attended the opening of the Music Hall and 
of the Boston Theatre, and I think it was at the last, on an operatic night, 
that Peirce, tramping about the stage as a soldier of the Roman Legion in 
all the pasteboard bravery of the scene, felt the strap which held his 
cuishes giving way, and his tinsel-trappings tumbling about his feet. But 
the Roman Eagles never drooped. Peirce was equal to the strain. With 
one hand he secured his armor and with the other he held aloft, as though 
empires were at stake, the proud S P Q R standard of the Conquerors of 
the World, and, while getting no aid from prompter or conductor, saved 
a trying situation and the honor of the class. 

ELLIS PETERSON, 

Son of Reuben and Deborah (Clark) Peterson, was 
born at Duxbury, Massachusetts, September 2, 1830, and was 
fitted for college at the Partridge Academy in that town, then 
under James Ritchie. He kept school during the four winters 

213 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of his college life — in the first at Marshfield, in the three fol- 
lowing in the Union School at Duxbury. 

In his first year after graduation, 1853-54, he was Preceptor 
of the Partridge Academy. The following year was spent as 
a student in the Harvard Divinity School. But he was obliged 
by ill-health to abandon his theological studies and, like his 
classmate Wilson, take to surveying, becoming a member of 
the party which located the centre of the Fitchburg Railroad. 
Beginning in the year 1856, the remainder of his hfe was 
that of school-master and educator. The following are the 
dates and places of his service: 1856-62, Castine, Maine; 
1862-63, Holliston, Massachusetts; 1863-64, Castine, Maine; 
April, 1865, to March, 1867, High School, Bangor, Maine; 
March, 1867, to June, 1869, High School, Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts. In 1869-70 he travelled in Europe, and in the latter 
year received the appointment of Assistant Professor of Phi- 
losophy at Harvard and held that position for two years, after 
which he returned to Worcester, to take charge again of the 
High School. 

He taught there until 1875. Then he opened a private 
school in the same city, where he remained for a year. For 
the succeeding twenty-six years, 1 876-1 902, he held the re- 
sponsible office of Supervisor of the Public Schools of Boston. 
His duties were to examine candidates for certificates of quali- 
fication to teach; to observe teachers appointed on probation, 
and to report whether or not such teachers should be con- 
firmed; to inspect and examine schools and the teaching in 
them, and to prepare questions for admission, for promotion 
and for diploma examinations in the several grades of schools, 
Primary, High, Latin, and Normal. 

His work as Supervisor received high commendations from 
persons every way qualified to judge of it. At a memorial 
service, held May i, 1904, in the Unitarian Church at Jamaica 
Plain, Mr. Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent of Public 
Schools, said : " Ellis Peterson was a member of the Board 
of Supervisors of the Public Schools of Boston from the 
organization of this board to his retirement in 1902. It may 
be said that by Mr. Peterson more than by any other one per- 

214 



Harvard Class of 1853 



son have been determined the spirit and methods of school 
supervision in Boston. From first to last he held steadfastly 
to the original idea that there should be an independent, com- 
petent, discriminating, and just tribunal for the judgment of 
all teachers and their work, the records of which judgment 
should be the basis for the appointment, promotion, continu- 
ance, or removal of all teachers. Every enlargement and im- 
provement of public instruction that has taken place since 1876 
owes much to the wise and progressive counsels of Mr. Peter- 
son. The introduction of manual training, cooking, physi- 
cal training, and the kindergarten was advocated and aided 
by him. The betterment of instruction in music and drawing 
had his support. The enlargement of the High School courses 
of study, and the elevation of the standard of teaching in the 
High School, engaged his most earnest thought and effort for 
many years. In the development of evening schools, the or- 
ganizing mind of Mr. Peterson has been constantly influen- 
tial from the beginning. There is a service the chief virtue 
of which arises from the personal character of him who ren- 
ders it. Such service was Mr. Peterson's." 

Dr. John Tetlow, Principal of the Girl's Latin School, char^ 
acterized Mr. Peterson as a man of inflexible integrity and 
unflinching moral courage. He never paid an insincere com- 
pliment and he never shrank from the duty, when it was a 
duty, of telling an unwelcome truth. 

President Eliot spoke of Peterson's life as one of the most 
satisfactory and happiest he had ever known. " It was natu- 
ral, simple, and dutiful, and concerned with high things. His 
joys were the natural joys. He loved fields, forests, and hills, 
and literature. His tastes were simple and refined. He had 
enough but not too much, and was never so overloaded with 
things possessed that he missed delights that come to us only 
through or by persons. 

" Yet nobody was ever more independent in spirit or 
sturdier in official duty than Ellis Peterson. The erectness 
of his carriage represented the attitude of his soul. In 
debate or controversy the patience, resoluteness, and probity 
of his spirit shone from his eyes. Nobody could suspect 

215 



Harvard Class of 1853 



him of hiding or qualifying his convictions through fear of 
consequences. 

" His duties as Supervisor were always arduous as regards 
the amount and urgency of the work, but they were much 
more than arduous, for they called incessantly for vigilance, 
candor, gentleness, and justice. 

" Finally, Ellis Peterson won the best of human joys, family 
felicity, a true marriage, and worthy grown-up children. After 
a year of exemption from official cares, Peterson was ap- 
pointed Supervisor of State Normal Schools, an office which 
he held for one year." 

Peterson died, April 9, 1904, after a short illness. He was 
married to Abby Almira Wheeler, daughter of Daniel Read 
and Susan (Halladay) Wheeler of Rutland, Massachusetts, 
July 28, 1874, who survived her husband. Their children 
were: Ellis, born September 24, 1875; Sidney, born January 
9, 1878 (H. U. 1899) ; Caro, born July 2, 1880, died October 
14, 1880; Abbot, born March 16, 1884 (H. U. 1904). 

CHARLES COOLIDGE POMEROY, 

Oldest son of Samuel Wyllys and Katharin Bayer 
(Coolidge) Pomeroy, was born at Philadelphia, March 7, 
1833. His early youth was spent in Cincinnati and he pre- 
pared there for college. 

He entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849 ^"^> after gradu- 
ation, studied law in Cincinnati for a time, but later assisted 
his father in the management of coal properties at Pomeroy, 
Ohio. At the outset of the Civil War, on May 14, 1861, he 
received the commission of Captain in the nth Regiment of 
Infantry of the regular United States Army, and was for a 
time in command of Fort Independence in Boston Harbor, 
and from there was transferred to Portsmouth Grove, Rhode 
Island, and subsequently to Indianapolis, Indiana, on recruit- 
ing and mustering service, and to Springfield and Chicago, 
Illinois, as mustering and disbursing officer. He was bre- 
vetted Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. A., November 13, 1865, and 
resigned October 5, 1867. He married^ just after the War, 
Edith, daughter of Robert W. and Margaret Groesbeck 

216 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Burnet, of Cincinnati, and granddaughter of Judge Jacob 
Burnet. 

Pomeroy for many years divided his time between Europe 
and his home in Cincinnati, but in 1880 became a member of 
the banking firm of Post & Pomeroy, afterwards Post, Martin 
& Co., New York, and made that city his residence, until his 
death, on February 22, 1898, which resulted from a stroke of 
apoplexy within an hour after the attack. He was a member 
of the Metropolitan, Union Riding, and Harvard Clubs and 
of the Down Town Association. His widow, who died May 
18, 191 1, and two daughters — Margaret Burnet, born at 
Cincinnati in 1870, married at Newport, Rhode Island, July 
22, 1905, to Philip Allen Clark, and Mary Burnet, born at 
New York in 1882, and married to Edward Van Austen of 
England — survived him. 

ROBERT SAMUEL RANTOUL 

I was born at Beverly, Massachusetts, in a house so near 
the sea that the southwesters would now and then encrust the 
windows facing towards the water with a frosting of salt, and 
never, until I was forty-four years of age, when I found my- 
self at Baden-Baden for a season, had I passed a summer out 
of the hearing and sight and smell of Massachusetts Bay. 

But my home was at once changed to Gloucester, where I 
passed seven years, going to school first, on high ground, about 
where the City Hall now stands, to a tall, elderly, bright- 
minded woman, who was endowed with the frame of a grena- 
dier, and with a distinctness of conception and a clearness of 
statement which made Judith Millett's teaching highly valued 
in all the countryside. When the Eastern Railroad was com- 
pleted between Boston and Beverly, my father took up his 
residence at the Beverly homestead and visited Boston daily 
by rail, establishing his business in and about Court Square. 
This was in 1839. I then pursued my schooling, first with 
Mrs. Mary Thorndike Weld, and next at the Beverly Acad- 
emy, a corporate school under the excellent instruction of 
Thomas Barnard West, of Salem. In 1845 ^ entered the Bos- 
ton Latin School for a four years' course, and then lived in 

217 



Harvard Class of 1853 



a long, brick dwelling off North Russell Street, having its end 
towards the street, and its front door against an open yard — 
a house disguised with rough-cast and cheerfully festooned 
with grape-vines. In the next house lived Frederic D. Wil- 
liams (H. U. 1850) since known as an artist in Paris and at 
home, and just around the corner lived Winsor, struggling 
with his history of Duxbury, which was well advanced, his 
chamber littered with books and papers, and his half-bred 
Arab horse, from his father's Vermont farm, ready to take 
us for a drive as often as he had finished a chapter. 

Across Cambridge Street, on the side of the hill, was 
grouped the whole colored population of Boston. And this 
gave a decided tinge to the industries of the section. At night, 
just before bedtime, a stalwart negro would make his rounds, 
harnessed with a yoke over his shoulders from which were 
hung two good-sized tin pails provided below with spirit- 
lamps, and these contained a supply of savory stewed oysters, 
which householders drew on with their bowls and cans when 
summoned forth, just before retiring, by the cheery cry, 
"Hot Oy!" 

And then there was the itinerant boot-black, fixed in Dr. 
Holmes's verse like a fly in amber, with his long pole resting 
on either shoulder, from which depended footgear in pairs, 
the begrimed on one side and the radiant on the other, taking, 
almost with the regularity of a shuttle, your soiled shoes 
to-day and returning them clean to-morrow, but requiring, as 
the canny doctor discovered, a double stock of footwear to 
complete the circuit: 

" Two pairs of boots one pair of feet demands 
If polished daily by the owner's hands; 
When the dark menial's visits save you this, 
Have twice the number, for he '11 sometimes miss ! " 

School-keeping was a feature of my college life which I 
enjoyed in common with others, and which I found inter- 
esting in itself. Nothing tends to fix in the mind a branch 
of knowledge more firmly than teaching it to another. Sum- 
mer hotel-service seems now to have supplanted winter school 

218 



Harvard Class of 1853 



teaching. The district-schools were kept open for three 
months, between Thanksgiving and the annual Town Meet- 
ings in March, and college terms were apportioned with 
some reference to school-keeping. There was a long winter 
vacation extending from the middle of January to March, 
and the six weeks of term-time between Thanksgiving and 
mid- January might be availed of for school-keeping and the 
omitted studies made up. This was sometimes done, but gen- 
erally the students who made a prime consideration of college 
rank did not go away to teach. Few of the first scholars did 
so, though many men who took parts did so, and must have 
made up their cuts. It was an open issue with school- 
committee men between the merits as school-masters of col- 
lege-bred men and normal school men, — whether they should 
prefer a teacher with more technical knowledge or with more 
general information. 

The whole system in our day was very crude. Agencies for 
bringing together the school-committee man and the would-be 
teacher scarcely existed. In the Freshman winter some dozen 
of us agreed to find schools within easy reach of one another, 
and to this end deputed Gage to reconnoitre Cape Cod, but 
he came back with so discouraging a report, finding the sand 
too deep, that nothing further was done. The next autumn 
Ward and I, in behalf of others, made a survey of Chelmsford, 
Billerica and the region about Lowell. Ward lived at West 
Newton, and had a pair of tiny Corsican ponies, whose en- 
durance was phenomenal, and we used to start out early Satur- 
days and scour the country until nightfall. But either we 
opened our campaign too late in the season, or our equipage 
was forbidding — for some reason or other we failed to se- 
cure schools. The next year I was helped, perhaps, by having 
a friend at court. Horace Mann, then the successor in Con- 
gress of John Quincy Adams, had superintended the erection 
of a high school — a new thing in Walpole — embodying 
ideas of his own, and was not averse to trying the experiment 
of opening it with a teacher whose father had been a colleague 
of his on Governor Everett's original Board of Education. 
The traditional plan of supporting the teacher by " boarding 

219 



Harvard Class of 1853 



around " was just outgrown at that time, and I was spared that 
test of endurance and was lodged in a snug little cottage not 
far away. The school was made up of incongruous elements. 
There was a good contingent of children from families of cul- 
ture — the doctors, the clergymen, the business men and 
farmers — and these were ready and anxious to learn. But 
there was a rough, militant element from a factory village 
hard by, which had other ambitions. This was no new thing. 
When Mr. Everett tried teaching, he wrote home to his aunt 
that he had for pupils " great men with beards." By keeping 
an evening school on my own account, several nights in the 
week, for those who were willing to learn, I was able to 
advance the more hopeful element so far that the average 
proficiency of the school made a fair showing when the term 
closed, but at the cost of a severe strain on the teacher. 

The common-school system was barely established in popu- 
lar favor then. The State was employing agents to commend 
it in public addresses. Charles W. Upham and Nathaniel P. 
Banks were among them. One adverse influence it encoun- 
tered was that of a class of tax-payers who claimed that, as 
they would never use public schools, but had to pay for the 
schooling of their children at private hands, they ought not to 
be taxed to support a school system for others. The only 
conclusive answer to this plea was, to make the public schools 
so good that the tax-payer who sent his children to any other 
school would be consciously giving them an inferior schooling. 
This the advocates of the school system set themselves to 
effect. The Boston Latin School of that day, judged by the 
class of families that supplied its pupils, or judged by the 
percentage of its pupils who showed well in Harvard ex- 
aminations, was the best school of the kind in Boston. Great 
strides were making in the average educational equipment of 
the State, but the system was not then the automatic machine 
it has since become. 

In the Senior year I kept a district-school in the heart of 
the Old Colony — at Pembroke, which was the west parish 
of Duxbury, early erected into a township. I found myself 
not only in the midst of Mayflower descendants and Pilgrim 

220 



Harvard Class of 1853 



homesteads — the Mayflower names were the common herit- 
age of everybody — but near enough to the State Normal 
School at Bridgewater to be conscious of its atmosphere. And 
also I had classmates teaching close at hand, and could ex- 
change calls with Guild and Weld and Peterson and Dwelley 
and with students from other colleges. 

After graduation, I lived at home in Beverly for a year, and 
had a desk in the law-oflice of Charles Greely Loring, in 
Boston, going up and down daily in the cars. This was the 
exciting winter of 1853-54, and of the historic Anthony Burns 
rendition, which I witnessed, in company with Wilder Dwight 
and others, from the office-window of Franklin Dexter oppo- 
site the Old Stone Court House. Several of us had been in- 
vited by Richard H. Dana, counsel for the fugitive, to take 
notes for him at the hearing before Judge Edward Greely 
Loring, and I did so with the rest. I had also been present at 
the hearing before George Ticknor Curtis on the rendition, in 
1 85 1, of Thomas Simms, for whom my father and Mr. 
Charles G. Loring had been of counsel. My father died in my 
Junior vacation. 

At Beverly, during the summers of 1853 and 1854, I had 
charge of half a dozen youngsters in the Loring and Jackson 
families, who were fitting for Harvard with Mr. Sullivan 
under Park Street Church, and who were anxious to extend 
their summer vacation in the country without getting behind 
in their preparatory work. One of them was Cabot Russell, 
who perished with Colonel Shaw and the 54th Regiment, in 
which he was a captain, in the historic assault on Fort Wag- 
ner; and one was Charles Loring Jackson, afterwards a Pro- 
fessor at Harvard. In September, 1854, I entered the Dane 
Law School, rooming at Divinity Hall, and continued that 
arrangement until January, 1856, when I was admitted to the 
Bar at Salem, for a while being allowed a desk in the office of 
the law-partners, Messrs. S. H. Phillips (H. U. 1842) and 
J. A. Gillis (H. U. 1849), and residing at Beverly. At the 
autumn election of 1857 I was chosen a Representative to 
the General Court from the district of Beverly, Wenham, and 
Hamilton. 

221 



Harvard Class of 1853 



On May 13, 1858, I was married and took up my residence 
in Salem. My wife was the youngest child of David Augus- 
tus and Harriet Charlotte (Price) Neal, of Salem. She was 
five years my junior, and was pledged to me before she was 
seventeen and while still attending Mrs. Lowell's School. In 
the weightiest transaction of my life I have been the most 
fortunate. But on May 20, 1899, she died, leaving me, after 
a union of forty-one years, with a grown-up family of six 
sons and three daughters — three of the sons married, four of 
them graduates of Harvard. We had, in 1867, built a sum- 
mer cottage at Beverly Farms. Salem and Beverly may be 
regarded as the habitat of our stock. They adjoin each other. 
The Neals, tracing back to the earliest settlement, have had 
no home but Salem. My mother was a lineal descendant of 
John Woodbury, of Salem — the " father Woodbury," and 
" first Constable," and " first Minister to England," of the 
little colony which removed with Roger Conant from Cape 
Ann to Naumkeag in 1626. My father's family and name 
trace back in this country only to 1769, when a Scottish lad 
of sixteen was seized by a press-gang, probably in Glasgow, 
and forced on board one of the British frigates sailing for 
Boston in that year to enforce the tea-tax. From this he 
escaped, and afterwards lived at Beverly and Salem, finally 
perishing, with all under his command, in William Gray's 
ship " Iris," which he had formerly commanded as a " Letter 
of Marque," in a storm off the coast of Virginia, in 1783, 
when only thirty years of age. In 191 2 I was able to trace 
out his birthplace among the hills overlooking Loch Leven 
in Kinross, Fifeshire. 

I was appointed by President Lincoln, in January, 1865, Col- 
lector of the Customs for the Port of Salem and Beverly, and, 
after completing my four years' term, was at the unanimous 
request of the Merchants of the Port, expressed in a petition, 
retained in that office until June, 1869, owing my supersedure 
at that date to Benjamin F. Butler, then the Representative of 
this District in Congress — a Republican, who was advocating 
fiat money and other financial heresies, and whose reelection 
I had publicly declined to support. I state this cause of my 

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Harvard Class of 1853 



removal without qualification, because General Butler's letters 
stated that the occasion of my removal was my failure to sup- 
port him. Foreign commerce had not then quite deserted 
Salem. The Collector's bond was in the penal sum of $40,000, 
and the sum of $112,000 had been collected in duties in one 
of my official years. Such a sum had not been collected for 
years before, and has never been collected since. Such a sum 
might have been collected on one cargo in the palmy days. 
Salem commerce is as much a matter of the past as Witch- 
craft or King Philip's War. It leaves a brilliant record. 

In the autumn of 1869 I took an office in Pemberton Square, 
Boston, having as a room-mate John Noble, '50, later Clerk 
of Courts, and here I remained until the spring of 1875, 
during a considerable part of that time acting as an unattached 
editorial writer for the " Evening Transcript," of which jour- 
nal the editorship, becoming vacant by death at that date, was 
offered to me. In August, 1875, I went with my family to 
Germany, and lived at Stuttgart, and at Baden-Baden near by, 
for two years, and then in Paris and French Switzerland for 
two years, returning through England to Salem in October, 
1879. On the Fourth of July, 1876, I had delivered the Cen- 
tennial address before the American Colony of Wiirtemberg, 
and in 1878 I spoke for the United States at the dinner given 
to General Grant at Paris on his tour around the world, the 
American Minister being unable to do this because occupying 
the Chair. In 1880 I was an Alderman of Salem, and de- 
livered the address before the Essex Institute and the City 
Authorities, on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the landing at Salem of Governor John Winthrop, a copy of 
which address was deposited by Governor Ames in the corner- 
stone of the last extension of the State House. In the elec- 
tion at the end of this year I was a defeated candidate for the 
mayoralty of Salem. I was Chairman of the City Republican 
Committee through the campaigns which resulted in electing 
Garfield in 1880 and Cleveland in 1884, and during the inter- 
vening years, supporting Blaine in the last-named campaign, 
much against my judgment and inclination, but under strong 
personal urgency from Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and 

223 



Harvard Class of 1853 



from John Greenleaf Whittier. In one of the intervening 
years I was a defeated Republican candidate for the State 
Legislature. Another year was that of the election of George 
Dexter Robinson (H. U. 1856) over Governor Butler, who 
had then become a Democrat, and in this campaign I was a 
member of the Republican State Central Committee, and took 
an active part by furnishing editorial matter for local news- 
papers and in other ways. In 1883 and in 1884 I was chosen 
to represent a Salem district in the State Legislature, and did 
what I could to prevent dispensing with the poll-tax as a pre- 
requisite for suffrage — failing in this effort — and to resist 
the adoption of the biennial system, so called, which I was 
largely instrumental in defeating. 

At the close of the Legislative session of 1885 I again went 
to Europe with a portion of my family, returning to Salem 
in October, 1886, having visited Paris, Brittany, Belgium, 
and parts of England. My family of young children gener- 
ally made it impossible for me to move about with much free- 
dom in these foreign countries, especially upon my first visit 
of 1875-79, but rather constrained me to select places of resi- 
dence where I was content to remain for a considerable num- 
ber of months at a time, that I might keep my children at 
school, or have them taught, and thus I got an inside view 
of the home-life of several sections of Europe much more in- 
timate than that acquired generally by American tourists. 
Travelling abroad is one thing — and a most desirable thing 
it is — but living abroad is quite another thing, and equally 
desirable in a very different way. My experience, especially 
in my first ventures, has partaken almost wholly of the latter 
character. To settle down in a home of one's own in a 
strange land, having children in the schools and credit in the 
shops, take in the daily papers, and be an ahonne at the opera 
and playhouse — this gives one a feeling of identification with 
the native stock from which the English traveller, whose ideal 
is to carry England about with him wherever he goes, is for- 
ever estranged. To me it is the lesson of value that travel 
has to teach — to learn how people as human as ourselves can 
live and act in ways the opposite of what we hold correct, and 

224 



Harvard Class of 1853 



not suppose for a moment that they are not quite as right and 
happy as ourselves. 

Gradually, after 1884, I drifted away from the Republican 
party of which I had been, in 1855, one of the organizers, and 
in which I had since acted with a good share of enthusiasm. 
It pleases me better to think that the Republican party had 
drifted away from me. It seemed to me to be abusing the 
confidence of the people. In 1888 I declared myself for Presi- 
dent Cleveland, when he was a candidate for reelection and 
was defeated by Harrison. I have always regarded protec- 
tion, as a means of keeping foreign products out of our mar- 
kets, to be an abuse, except in the case of new industries strug- 
gling for a foothold. I also regard with jealousy the tendency 
of the Central Government to absorb local authority. 

Since my return from abroad to Salem in 1886, I have 
busied myself much at the Essex Institute, of which organiza- 
tion I had the general charge after leaving the City Hall in 
January, 1894, and of which I became President in 1896, re- 
signing official connection with it in 1904. For four years, 
from 1890 to 1894, I was Mayor of Salem — a distinctly Re- 
publican city — but party lines were not then always drawn 
in our city elections. I received an increasing majority on 
each succeeding vote, and was again a candidate for a fifth 
term in 1893, then receiving less than one third of the total 
vote cast. In 1895 I was a defeated candidate on the Demo- 
cratic ticket for the State Senate. In 1896 I was a candidate 
of the Gold Democrats (so called) for Presidential Elector 
for Massachusetts. At this time, after several urgent requests, 
I consented to be a candidate for Overseer of Harvard Uni- 
versity, and was put upon the ballot and mercilessly slaugh- 
tered at the polls. In 1900 I was chosen an honorary member 
of the Phi Beta Kappa, and accepted the election, and have 
been chosen a member of the American Antiquarian Society 
and of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, which 
elections I have declined. In 1901 I was a Democratic candi- 
date for Executive Councillor in a Republican district, com- 
prising Southern Essex County, and though defeated carried 
the city of Salem so handsomely that, a month later, I was 

225 



Harvard Class of 1853 



for the seventh time made a non-partisan candidate for Mayor 
of Salem, when I was defeated by 800 votes in a total of 
6,500. On my seventieth birthday, June 2, 1902, the Class of 
'53, to the number of eighteen, breakfasted with me, by invi- 
tation, at Beverly Farms. Twenty-nine members were then 
living. 

On resigning the presidency of the Institute in July, 1904, 
I went with my daughters to Holland, and thence through 
France, Italy, Sicily, and Greece, as far East as Constanti- 
nople, returning through Hungary, Vienna, Paris, and Eng- 
land. In 1907 we again visited Europe, landing at the Azores 
and at Gibraltar, and seeing Southern Spain, Tangier, the 
Italian Riviera, Northern France, and Paris, with the Mid- 
land Counties of England as far North as Wales. We found 
Tours and Rouen rare centres for automobiling, and the 
smooth, straight, level thoroughfares of France ideal for the 
purpose. In 1908, while abroad, I was chosen a member of 
the Massachusetts Historical Society and accepted the elec- 
tion. In 1909, at the invitation of the Essex Institute, I de- 
livered the address on the Centennial of the birth of Lincoln, 
as I had, in 1896, the address on the seventy-fifth anniversary 
of the founding of the Essex Historical Society. 

R. S. R. 

FRANCIS GARDINER RICHARDS, 

Son of Francis and Anne (Gardiner) Richards, was 
born at Gardiner, Maine, June 10, 1833. His early instructors 
were Messrs. Whitman and Winnett, the former afterwards 
Principal of the Hopkins Classical School at Cambridge; the 
Rev. Samuel Doria of West Wickham, Kent, England ; Fred- 
erick Eustis of Milton, Massachusetts; and Roswell Park of 
Pom fret, Connecticut. 

In the spring of 1849 he resolved to enter Harvard Col- 
lege, and for that purpose reviewed the necessary studies 
under the care of the Rev. Frederick Gardiner, of Bath, 
Maine, and was admitted Freshman in July. In the Junior 
year Richards obtained the Bowdoin prize for Latin ver- 
sification, the translation of a passage from " Cowper's 

226 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Task " in hexameters. In this his English training stood 
him in good stead. The Wickham pupils had been taught 
to speak Latin at breakfast. 

On leaving college Richards studied law in the office of 
Messrs. Sohier & Welch in Boston, and was admitted to the 
Bar on May 4, 1857. I" that year he sailed for India as 
supercargo's clerk in the ship " Syren," of which his uncle 
by marriage, Richard Sullivan, was part owner with Higgin- 
son & Silsbee. Although it was the year of the mutiny, he 
spent some time in that country, and returned in the ship 
" Medford " in 1858. He then engaged, at Gardiner, in the 
business of paper-manufacturing, which was hereditary in 
his family, first as a member of the firm of Richards & Hos- 
kins, and afterwards as a member of the firm of Richards 
&Co. 

He died at Boston February 10, 1884. 

He was married in London, February 18, 1879, to Anne, 
daughter of Samuel Ashburner, formerly of Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, afterwards of London, and had issue: Fran- 
cis, born February 22, 1880, graduated at New College, 
Oxford, in 1902; Anne Hallo well, born August 16, 1881. 

WILLIAM HENRY ROWE, 

Son of Samuel and Lydia Ann (Fletcher) Rowe, was 
born in Boston, October 6, 1830. When five years of age he 
was accidentally hit on the left knee by a stone, which lamed 
him for life. 

He was fitted for college at the Boston Latin School, where 
a Franklin medal was awarded him for his superior scholar- 
ship. While in college he taught school during the winter 
vacations ; in his Freshman year, in Middleton — when the 
sleighing was good Browne and Rantoul drove out from 
Salem to see him; in his Sophomore year, in Deerfield, New 
Hampshire; in his Junior year, in Braintree; in his Senior 
year, in Taunton. He was a diligent student. His part at 
Commencement was a disquisition — " Prince Metternich." ^ 

* Editorial Note. — Rowe was handicapped with his troublesome knee, 
which cramped his action and made him, to those who met him for the first 

227 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Immediately after leaving college, he entered as a student 
the office of Fisher Allen Kingsbury, in Weymouth, under 
whose tuition he pursued the study of the law for two years. 
While in this place, he was instrumental in establishing a 
debating society, of which he was the leading spirit and which 
was highly successful. Meeting accidentally, in Boston, some 
gentlemen from the West, he was induced, by the flattering 
prospects held out for young lawyers in that part of the coun- 
try, to go to Davenport, Iowa, where he entered the office of 
Hon. John P. Cook, at that time a Representative in Congress 
from Iowa. Here he finished his legal studies ; and in March, 
1856, he was admitted to the Bar in Davenport. He imme- 
diately began practice, still continuing in the office of Mr. 
Cook. His success was very great, and he was soon in full 
practice, with a brilliant prospect before him. He was a man 

time, an object of sympathy. His frame was slight and his appearance 
delicate, but his physical vigor was exceptional. No fellow on the Delta 
was more reliable in a football match. For four years Rowe and I had 
lived near one another, roused and lulled to rest by the bells of Dr. 
Lowell's West Boston Church, and had tramped twice a day over the 
Belknap Street Hill from Cambridge Street to the Common, to reach the 
Latin School in Bedford Street. And nobody knew better than I of what 
fibre he was made. But the test came when a brother of our classmate 
Ward, from Newton, taking tea with friends who lived in Cambridge, at 
the corner of Oxford Street, hitched his wagon to the horse-post to await, 
later on, his return to Newton. The horse got restive and broke away, and, 
wrenching the shafts from the axle, took them with him and started for 
home, leaving the body of the disabled vehicle standing before the door. 
The incident had not come to the knowledge of the household before Ward 
and a few of us, who had secreted the wreck in a near-by stable, as soon 
as it was dark enough, set out with it for West Newton, manned with drag- 
ropes and thoroughly provisioned. Nobody joined in the prank with more 
zest than Rowe. The disappearance of the outfit did not wait long to be 
announced, nor the police to be summoned. The brother from West New- 
ton remained in Cambridge, enlisted in the search. Meanwhile the horse 
had reached the Ward homestead, had made the misadventure known, and 
had comfortably installed himself in his own quarters. When we arrived 
later, in the small hours, we planted the crippled wagon squarely across the 
front door, so that passage in or out was only to be had by removing it, 
stripped the pantry of its comestibles, and got off without detection. We 
were back in Cambridge in good time for morning prayers. The servants 
of the household, on awaking, saw that the wreck belonged there, but just 
how it got there, or how the pantry had been rifled, or who got the pies 
and baked meats, they had yet to learn. 

228 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of great energy, and a too constant attention to business prob- 
ably affected his health. 

Early in the year 1858 he became deeply interested in reli- 
gion, which induced him to resolve upon a different course 
of life. In a letter to a friend in Boston, dated March 9, 
1858, he writes: " I shall probably give up the profession of 
law, and study for the ministry; and I earnestly pray to God 
that he will accept and prepare me for the holy work. With 
God's permission, I expect to enter the Seminary at Andover 
at the commencement of the next term, viz., September next; 
and shall probably therefore return to the East in the course 
of a few months : when, I don't exactly know." 

But upon this new profession he was not permitted to enter. 
In March the incipient symptoms of consumption began to be 
developed, and rapidly increased; and it soon became mani- 
fest that death was not far distant. His illness was not known 
to his friends here until some time afterwards ; but, when the 
sad news reached them, they took measures for his return to 
his native city. He arrived in Boston the ist of July, in a 
state of extreme debility, and after three weeks' great bodily 
suffering, but in a very happy frame of mind, he expired on 
the 22d of that month. He was greatly beloved by his asso- 
ciates and by relatives who had made sacrifices to secure his 
education, and who from his blameless life and brilliant prom- 
ise had anticipated for him a career of usefulness and success. 
He was never married. The Davenport papers regretted his 
loss in feeling terms, speaking of him as a " kind and cour- 
teous gentleman, a polished scholar, and a sincere Christian." 



FRANCIS HENRY RUSSELL, 

Son of Nathaniel and Catherine Elizabeth (Elliott) 
Russell, was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, August 3, 
1832. 

He was prepared for college in the schools of Plymouth 
and under the tuition of the Rev. Augustus R. Pope, Uni- 
tarian minister at Kingston, Massachusetts, and entered 
Harvard as Freshman in 1849. His part at Commencement 

229 



Harvard Class of 1853 



was a dissertation — " The Latin Language in the Middle 
Ages." 

After graduation he entered upon the business of iron 
manufacturing at Plymouth, a business in which his father 
and grandfather had been engaged under the firm name of 
Nathaniel Russell & Co., and so continued until, as their suc- 
cessor, a corporation was organized under the laws of Mas- 
sachusetts with the name " Robinson Iron Co.," of which 
he was made Treasurer. Iron manufacturing having be- 
come unprofitable in Massachusetts, he gave up his position, 
and in 1882 removed to Brookline, Massachusetts, and be- 
came connected with the Bates Manufacturing Company, 
cotton manufacturers, having their business office in Boston, 
and this position he has continued to hold. 

Russell was married at Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Emily, 
daughter of Abiel and Abigail (Archer) Stevens, of Law- 
rence. Their only child is Mary Rowland, born September 
I, i860. 

GEORGE HENRY SARGENT, 

Son of Joseph Denny and Mindwell (Jones) Sargent, 
was born at Leicester, Massachusetts, on October 29, 1828, 
being a descendant of William Sargent, " lay preacher," who 
came from Northampton in England in 1638 to Charles- 
town, and was made successively Freeman of the Massachu- 
setts and of the Plymouth Colonies. 

Sargent was educated in the town school of Leicester and 
at Leicester Academy, and entered Harvard as Freshman in 
1849, remaining there until November, 1851, in his first term 
Junior. In the winter of 1850-51 he taught the town school 
of Leicester with a success that challenged an encomium from 
the Chairman of the School Committee in his report to the 
following town meeting. In April, 1852, he entered the Har- 
vard Law School and remained until the end of the term, 
rooming in Massachusetts with his old chum, Howe, and keep- 
ing in touch with his college classmates. But the attractions 
of business proved stronger than those of the law and, in Jan- 
uary, 1853, he formed a partnership with his brothers Jo- 

230 



Harvard Class of 1853 



seph B. and Edward Sargent in their hardware business in 
New York, which proved to be the introduction to a highly 
prosperous career. From this business there grew the manu- 
factory of hardware at New Haven, Connecticut, where the 
corporation, " Sargent & Co.," said to be the largest of the 
kind in the world, with a capital of $4,000,000, and an im- 
mense plant, was established. This was incorporated in 1864, 
and of this George H. Sargent has been President for many 
years. Of the New York firm, the brothers Joseph B. and 
Edward died in 1907 and 1883 respectively, and were suc- 
ceeded by new partners, the firm carrying on a mercantile 
business distinct from that of the manufactory, as well as a 
large export trade. 

But Sargent's activities have not been confined to the hard- 
ware trade. In politics he has always been an ardent Repub- 
lican, voting for Fremont in 1856, and for every Republican 
candidate for President since. In 1901 he was much talked 
of as a candidate for the mayoralty of New York, and the 
" Tribune " newspaper started a canvass of the sentiment of 
its readers, otherwise called a " straw vote," to test the popu- 
larity of the various men whose names were prominently be- 
fore the public in connection with that office. Sargent's name 
stood at the head of a list of fifteen such men, he receiving 
5,880 votes. He does not seem to have encouraged the move- 
ment, though naturally gratified by the demonstration in his 
favor. To all suggestions and appeals he made a positive 
declaration that he was not a candidate for the office, and 
would not accept a nomination were it tendered to him. " I 
appreciate your kindness," he said to one caller, " but office 
holding has never been in my line, and I have no desire to 
begin it now." 

Sargent was a member of the Chamber of Commerce of 
New York for many years, and in the year 190T was one of 
the delegates appointed to become the guests of the London 
Chamber of Commerce. He was prevented by the illness of 
his wife from availing himself of the opportunity and enjoy- 
ing the elaborate entertainment planned by the London Cham- 
ber. Applying the maxim Noscitiir a Sociis, his rank in the 

231 



Harvard Class of 1853 



business world is indicated by the names of his fellow dele- 
gates, J. P. Morgan, M. K. Jesup, Andrew Carnegie, among 
them. He was for many years a Trustee of Leicester Acad- 
emy, and President in 1907. He has been a Director in the 
Mercantile National Bank of New York since 1881, and of 
the Fidelity Trust Company since its organization. 

Of clubs, he has been member and for two years President 
of the Hardware, member and officer of The Union League 
and Republican, member of the University and the Harvard, 
and prominent as an official in promoting the growth and 
success of the last. Although his degree of A.B. was given 
out of course in 1895, at the pressing request of his classmates, 
the Class of 1853 has had no member more attached to his 
college friends and the memories of college days, or more 
constant in attendance at its meetings. 

Firm in the religious faith of his parents, the parishioners 
of the Rev. Samuel May of Leicester, Sargent has been an 
attendant at the All Souls' Unitarian Church of New York, 
since the beginning of his residence in that city in 1853. 

Sargent was married, on October 15, 1855, at Nantucket, 
Massachusetts, to Sarah C. (deceased April 13, 1902), daugh- 
ter of the Hon. John H. Shaw and Eliza Ann (Swift) Shaw. 
Their children were two sons and one daughter. The sons — 
Leicester, born March 31, 1858, and Rupert, born March 27, 
1863, both at New York, who had entered Harvard in 1875 
and 1880 respectively, but who did not graduate because of 
a preference for mercantile life — were lost in a deplorable 
yachting accident in August, 1883. They were on their way 
from New Haven to Nantucket, in the yacht " Mystery." The 
yacht foundered in a heavy gale and their bodies washed 
ashore. The daughter, Emily Shaw Sargent, was born Feb- 
ruary 26, 1866, in New York, and married in 1895 to Wil- 
fred Lewis, of Philadelphia, and has three children. 

No notice of Sargent would be adequate which failed to 
pay tribute to the noble and well-considered and unceasing 
benefactions bestowed on his native town. So conspicuous 
a feature of the contemporary annals of Leicester had these 
become that, in 191 1, on his eighty-third birthday, he was 

282 



Harvard Class of 1853 



surprised with a spontaneous demonstration of the citizens 
and the combined industries of the place, with the school- 
children bearing flowers. Nothing could have been more re- 
freshing, and it did not close without a dinner at the Village 
Inn and the presentation of a silver cup feelingly inscribed. 

His eighty-fifth year is now upon him, and finds him still 
in harness, working with all the vigor and enthusiasm and 
sagacity of earlier years. If trifling were not out of place in 
such a connection, it might be said that what is hardware for 
others seems not to be hard wear for him. 

WINSLOW WARREN SEVER, 

Son of James Nicholas and Mercy Foster (Russell) 
Sever, was born at Kingston, Massachusetts, on January 31, 
1832. 

He attended schools kept by women, and, at the age of 
ten, the public school of Kingston, until May, 1847, when 
he was sent to the boarding-school of Dr. J. W. Browne at 
Framingham, where the boys, thirty-one in number, were so 
crowded and so insufficiently accommodated that he was al- 
lowed to return home in November following, and soon after 
resumed his studies under Mr. Charles Barton of Plymouth. 
Here he remained until, in August, 1848, he was placed 
under the instruction of the Rev. Edmund Quincy Sewall, 
of Cohasset, with whom he finished his preparation for col- 
lege and entered Harvard as Freshman in 1849. His Com- 
mencement part was an essay — " Bibliomania." 

While in college. Sever, who had been educated as a 
Unitarian, became attracted to a more orthodox type of re- 
ligion (in the New England sense of the word orthodox) 
and ultimately decided to study for the Episcopal ministry 
at the Theological Seminary of Alexandria, Virginia, where 
he completed his course in 1856. On March 19 of that year 
he was ordained Deacon at St. James's Church, Roxbury, 
and began pastoral work at St. John's Church, Sandwich. 

In 1857 he was ordained Priest, and from May 13, 1857, 
to the autumn of 1859, was Assistant to Dr. Cutler, Rector 
of St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn, New York. 

283 



Harvard Class of 1853 



On April 14, i860, he began work at Grace Church, Plain- 
field, New York, and in the following July at St. Mary's 
Church, Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts, where he of- 
ficiated for four years and a half, and was then called to 
take charge of a parish, Christ Church, at Lonsdale, Rhode 
Island. His pastorate continued until August 10, 1871, and 
during the remainder of that and the following year he was 
Assistant Pastor and Superintendent at St. Luke's Hospital, 
New York, of which Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg was chief. 

A somewhat remarkable episode in Sever's life then fol- 
lowed. His churchmanship was always of the low or evan- 
gelical school, and its emphasis was laid upon personal re- 
ligious experiences. The High Church proclivities of the 
Episcopal Church, and its restrictive legislation, had become 
increasingly distasteful to him, and he found himself out of 
sympathy with its prevailing modes of thought and action; 
it therefore seemed desirable to work where he could do so 
more heartily. He regarded the contemplated change as not 
one of doctrine, but simply of relation. 

In April, 1873, he was received in its full connection by 
the New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and his first appointment was in Lee, Berkshire County, 
Massachusetts. 

His pastorates in the Methodist Church were in the years 
1875-77, ^t the Jane Street Church, New York; in 1878-81, 
at the Cannon Street (now Trinity) Church, Poughkeepsie, 
New York; in 1882, at Fishkill on the Hudson. 

After a ten years' experience of Methodism and its work- 
ings, and having found it by no means an ideal system, he 
returned to his first love, the Episcopal Church. The canons 
required him to pass one year as a layman before resuming 
his functions as a priest. After this period of probation 
he became Rector of Emmanuel Church, Manville, Rhode 
Island, on September i, 1885. He resigned that position, 
on March 28, 1887, to take a similar one in St. George's 
Parish, Central Falls, Rhode Island, which he held for five 
years, and where he was last settled. 

.While there he received, June 16, 1890, the honorary de- 

234 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gree of S.T.D. from Griswold College, Iowa, in " recogni- 
tion of his good scholarship, sound churchmanship, and de- 
votion to the work of the ministry." 

Among the resolutions passed at a meeting of the Wardens 
and Vestry of St. George's Church, held December 7, 1891, 
appear the following: 

" Resolved that for his ministering to the temporal wants 
of the poor and the spiritual needs of all; for the tender 
solicitude and earnest sympathy which have always brought 
him to the bedside of the sick and dying; for his improving 
the condition of the church and rectory, and for his exertions 
in lessening the debt on the rectory; for his financial aid 
from time to time, as necessity called for it — the members 
of this parish owe him a debt which they never can repay." 

After his resignation he did not give up work, but con- 
tinued to preach, on Sundays and sometimes on week days, 
during the following year. 

Sever seems to have written but little. Some of his com- 
munications to a paper published by Dr. Charles Cullis, called 
" Times of Refreshing," were issued later by the Willard 
Tract Repository as little tracts. He disclaimed any preten- 
sion to strictly literary merit as a preacher or writer, and 
yet the transparent sincerity of his thought lent a charm to 
his style, in which there was nothing labored. 

He was indeed one of the most sincere and unaffected of 
clergymen, and his religion was that of a man who loves his 
fellowmen, his aim being to inspire them with hope and 
encouragement. 

Sever's later years were spent at the home of a physician 
at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and many of his old parishioners 
sought his sympathy and service when death came to their 
hoities. 

In September, 1893, he began to feel an indisposition — 
the precursor of the serious malady, cancer of the stomach, 
which terminated his life, where he was boarding for a time 
in the house of an old parishioner, at Lee, on July 15, 1894. 

Sever was never married. 



235 



Harvard Class of 1853 



SAMUEL SAVAGE SHAW, 

Youngest son of Lemuel Shaw (H. U. 1800) and Hope 
Savage Shaw, was born at Boston, October 16, 1833. 

His education began at an early age under the instruction, 
first of a Miss Guliker at the corner of Buttolph (now Ander- 
son) and Myrtle Streets, then of a Miss Paddock, over an 
apothecary shop at the corner of Hancock and Derne Streets 
— a site which has since been twice built over, first by the 
granite reservoir and then by the present State House. Mr. 
George W. Fowle's Monitorial School was his next school, and 
from there he proceeded to the Boston Latin School, entering 
in 1844, taking the full course of five years and being admitted 
at Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 

After graduation he passed two academical years in the 
Harvard Law School, 1853-55, ^^'^ took the degree of LL.B. 
at the end of that time. Another year was passed in the office 
of Sidney Bartlett, Esq., a former partner of his father, where 
he enjoyed the companionship of his old schoolfellow and 
college classmate Crocker, and he was admitted to the Bar 
April I, 1856, on examination, at the same time with Crocker. 

On April 23 following he sailed from Boston for Liverpool 
in the Cunard steamer " Cambria " and reached that port 
May 7. In company with a rather large party of well-known 
Bostonians he proceeded to London next day, and having 
good letters passed an enjoyable seven weeks, sight-seeing and 
dining. While there he met his classmates Briggs, who had 
come out as ship's doctor in an emigrant ship, Lyman, and 
Dwight, also James Savage (H. U. 1854), D wight and Sav- 
age both afterwards distinguished for their services in the 2d 
Regiment and lamented deaths in the Civil War. He left 
London for a tour in England and Scotland on June 2y, met 
Dwight and Savage on their way home, at Oxford, parted 
from them in Wales, returned to London July 18, and took 
passage in a steamer from London to Antwerp on the 29th, ar- 
riving there next day. Belgium, Holland, and the Rhine and 
Southern Germany were visited without undue haste, and on 
August 22, Shaw arrived at Berlin, where he settled down in 
a German boarding-house and made an assiduous study of the 

236 



Harvard Class of 1853 



German language with fair success. The attractions of the 
royal theatre, opera, and ballet were not neglected. Perhaps 
the most memorable incident of his residence at Berlin was 
the visit of the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt to Mr. 
George Ticknor, at which he was most kindly invited to be 
present. On the ist of January, 1857, he left Berlin for Dres- 
den. A winter journey through Germany, with stops at 
Dresden, Munich, and Vienna, where he found his classmate 
White, then a medical student, brought him to Venice on Feb- 
ruary 14, where spring was opening. Crossing the North of 
Italy to Genoa, he went by water to Naples and passed there 
a delightful fortnight. In the absence of any railway he 
posted in the company of friends to Rome, in the old style, 
postilion, relays of horses, etc. At Rome he was fortunate in 
being able to see all the ceremonies of Holy Week and Easter, 
in which Pope Pius IX took a conspicuous part, contrary to 
the practice of his successors. A five days' journey via Assisi 
and Perugia with a vetturino brought him to Florence. 
Thence he proceeded by steamer from Leghorn to Marseilles 
and arrived at Paris May 9. Here he spent a little over three 
months and endeavored to improve his time in the study of 
the French language. In August and September he made a 
satisfactory tour in Switzerland, returned to London Septem- 
ber 24, and sailed for home October 10 in the " Europa." 

In 1858 he began professional life by opening a small office 
at 47 State Street. On November 25, 1859, he moved to 24 
Old State House and became a sort of student assistant in 
the office of Messrs. Dana & Cobb, where he remained until 
October 12, i860, and then moved to 16 Court Street. Here 
he spent eight years, the office being shared for a large part 
of the time by Edward Ellerton Pratt, Esq. (H. U. 1852), of 
most happy memory. The approaching demolition of No. 16 
Court Street compelled another change, and on September 9, 
1868, he followed a general movement of lawyers to Pember- 
ton Square and took an office in the rear of No. 13. The 
next year, on December 2 1 , he had and seized the opportunity 
of joining his friends Messrs. U. H. and G. G. Crocker and 
Henry H. Sprague and sharing the commodious second floor 

237 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of No. 14 Pemberton Square. The demolishers beginning to 
threaten again in order to clear the ground for the new Court 
House, the Crockers, Sprague, and Shaw left Pemberton 
Square for 19 Milk Street, on January 15, 1886. This was 
Shaw's last local business change, and here he spent the last 
ten years of his business life. The whole of that business life 
was very quiet and uneventful, consisting, w4th some convey- 
ancing, mostly in the care of property and the settlement of 
estates — executorships and trusteeships, amongst others those 
under wills of Henry P. Kidder, M. Day Kimball, and Wil- 
liam Sturgis. It was varied by six visits to Europe in 1875, 
1880, 1887, 1889, 1890, and 1892. In the autumn of 1896 
Shaw gave up his business and set out on more serious travel- 
ling, and spent six months in a tour of Egypt and the Nile, 
Greece, and Italy. In the course of subsequent journeys 
begun in 1898, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, and 1906, he visited 
Algiers and North Africa, Sicily, the Holy Land and Greece, 
Denmark, Sweden and Russia, France and Italy. 

Shaw was elected Class Secretary at Commencement, 1863, 
on the resignation of John D. Washburn. He has been Direc- 
tor of the Rockport Granite Company, Trustee and Secretary 
of the Boston Library Society, and was elected, very unex- 
pectedly, a Resident Member of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society in 1903. He was never married, 

WILLIAM INSKEEP SHREVE, 

Son of Ralph H. and Sarah L. Shreve, was born April 
13, 1832, at Lawrence, New Jersey, and was taken to Newton 
in that State about one year after. 

He passed through numerous private schools and entered 
Harvard as Sophomore in 1850. He was popular w^ith his 
class, and when a new debating club, called " The Wranglers," 
was organized, he was made President of it. 

After leaving college he studied law with his cousin, James 
Wilson, Esq., of Trenton, and for a few years practised in 
that city, but was drawn from that profession by what seemed 
a more profitable occupation, the manufacture of crockery, 
at the dawn of that industry which has grown to such large 

238 



Harvard Class of 1853 



proportions in Trenton. But his expectations were not real- 
ized and, in 1862, he removed to Jersey City, and engaged in 
various pursuits, first as a real estate broker and later as a 
stockbroker in Wall Street, New York. He removed to 
Orange, New Jersey, in 1865. His health was never robust, 
and there was a gradual failing which developed into pro- 
nounced consumption. He died at Westfield, New Jersey, on 
May 10, 1894. 

He was married to Ellen M. Lloyd about the year 1858, but 
had no children. 

EDWARD SUTTON SMITH, 

Only child of Jerome Van Crowninshield and Eliza 
Maria (Brown) Smith, was born at Boston, December 27, 
1830. He spent a happy childhood at Rainsford Island in 
Boston Harbor, where his father held the office of Port Phy- 
sician, and which he considered the most delightful place in 
the world. 

His first teacher was Miss Willy. Afterward he went for 
several years to the school of Mr. Kidder of Boston, spent 
two years or more at the Boston Latin School, a year at the 
Chauncy Hall School, and six months of his seventeenth year 
at Dr. Siedhof's German School in Newton Centre. After 
a long illness he passed half a year at Mr. Brooks's School in 
Boston, and then entered Williams College. In a few months 
he left Williams and began the study of medicine. Finally 
he entered Harvard College, in September, 1851, as Junior. 
On graduation he resumed his medical studies, apparently 
under the instruction of his father, and during the year 1855- 
56 as a student in the Harvard Medical School, where he re- 
ceived the degree of M.D. in the latter year. 

After finishing his medical course he travelled extensively in 
Europe, living in Paris several years. On his return to the 
United States he practised medicine for some time in New 
York, and afterwards at Boston from about 1883 to the year 
of his death, 1891. 

Dr. Smith died very suddenly on a railway train en route 
for New York, July 21, 1891. He left a widow, whose 

239 



Harvard Class of 1853 



maiden name was Mary Sheppard, before marriage a resident 
of New Jersey, but had no children. 

GEORGE SMITH 

(Whose name appears in the catalogues and on the records 
of /the college as one of the generous benefactors of Har- 
vard) was born, February 27, 1833, according to the inscrip- 
tion cut by his order on a monument erected by him in Belle- 
fontaine Cemetery, at St. Louis, Missouri, under which his 
remains are buried. His birthplace is uncertain, and the 
date of his birth has been variously told. He composed his 
own epitaph. He probably became an orphan early in life. 
He was the son of one Connelly, an Irish porter in the em- 
ploy of Messrs. Smith & Partridge, leading merchants of 
St. Louis. The senior partner of the firm, James Smith, a 
man of wealth and ambitions, who had been a pioneer, found 
himself childless in advancing years, and, conceiving a liking 
for the boy, treated him as a son, giving him every possible 
advantage, both educational and social. Mrs. Persis Smith, 
the wife, was equally attracted by him. It does not appear 
that he was ever adopted with legal formality, although al- 
lowed to use the family name. 

He entered Harvard at the beginning of the Sophomore 
year. When he arrived at Cambridge in 1850, Smith brought 
along with him the breezy atmosphere of the prairies. He 
was short and sturdy in stature. Like Buffalo Bill, he wore 
his hair in long curls over his shoulders, and this proved so 
distasteful to the delicate sensibilities of his fellow-students 
that they indulged themselves in one of those little amenities 
known to college life. Stealing upon his slumbers, they 
treated his hair with an application of molasses which they 
followed with the sand-blast, with the result that only a free 
recourse to the shears could afford relief. Smith allowed 
himself little eccentricities which might well enough have 
been in touch with the conventions of the West, but which, 
in an older community, did not fail to excite comment. He 
was reported, on one occasion, to have served Doctor Walker 
with a written challenge to fight a duel, finding the provo- 

240 



Harvard Class of 1853 



cation the Doctor had given him, in some matter of disci- 
pline, too grave to pass unnoticed by a gentleman. The word 
opifex, for a Smith, Mras at once contracted for his benefit 
into 'Pifex, and as 'Pifex he vv^as known throughout his 
college course. 

He was not long out of college before his relations with 
his benefactors became strained, notwithstanding his large 
allowance and a devotion on their part well-nigh parental, 
and he now found himself regarded by his patrons as a thorn 
in the flesh. Practically disowned, he was sent into the 
world to shift for himself. For twenty-odd years ensuing 
he led the life of a vagrant, delving in Western mining- 
camps, gambling in Wall Street bucket-shops, " plunging " in 
wheat at the Chicago grain market, haunting sections of 
Philadelphia which did him no good. He made no friends 
and never seemed to care for them. His patron died in 1877. 
It has been said that Mrs. Smith, desolate in her widowhood, 
sought out the wanderer and offered to forget the past. At 
any rate, he returned to St. Louis and appealed, not in vain, 
to her sympathy and to the memory of the early attachment 
she had felt for him. 

In 1892 he writes to Crocker that the crystallotype taken 
of him on leaving Cambridge was the last likeness taken of 
him, although his " dear mother " urged him for others often, 
and that " it will probably remain so." He then reiterates 
his " old love for our Alma Mater" Mrs. Smith had died 
in February, 1891. Until then he had maintained a hermit- 
like residence in a shambling old house, changing it at that 
time for a " nice, new bachelor-den," to visit him in which 
he invites the Class Secretary, when writing to him, in 1892, 
that he regretted not being present at Commencement that 
year "to view some of the remnants of the Class of '53; — 
possibly may take a look at them next year." His hand- 
writing was firm and clear, and his forms of expression in 
the main correct. 

This change of tone was coincident with the death of his 
foster-mother, Mrs. Persis Smith. She had made him heir 
to her husband's fortune. Of course the offering for pro- 

241 



Harvard Class of 1853 



bate of her will was the challenge to a furious contest. There 
were blood-relations living, and they naturally made them- 
selves heard. For ten years the estate was the sport of 
bitter litigation, in which the unpromising beneficiary finally 
prevailed. 

Smith, in these years, took no part in the life about him — 
seemed to have no interest above bucket-shops, became a 
confirmed recluse, violent in his personal dislikes, suspicious, 
lacking refined tastes. He now occupied the house which he 
had acquired by will, kept his window-shades drawn, and 
buried himself in what was once a favorite residential quarter 
of St. Louis, now given over to cheap lodging-houses. There, 
alone, except for domestics, he lived on, sour, cynical, mi- 
serly, unmarried and unknown. He shared his table with a 
brood of cats, and seemed to have no human ties except those 
kept alive by his dependence on the lawyers who nursed his 
suits. The Trust Company which he named as executor of 
his will arranged his burial. At the request of the company, 
Harvard men were his pallbearers who had never seen him 
alive. No clergyman was bidden, because of a request found 
in a post obit letter hastily opened, at the instance of the 
servants, to learn the provisions for his burial which they 
declared it contained. 

But he was not friendless. Domestics mourned him sin- 
cerely, and waifs from an orphan-home, whom he had be- 
friended in his life, furnished a chorus to accompany the 
solo singer provided by the Trust. 

He left the bulk of his estate — a quarter of a million — 
to Harvard University, to be applied to the erection of three 
dormitories which are to bear the names of his two bene- 
factors and himself. The fund is now accumulating, accord- 
ing to the provisions of his will. He remembered his ser- 
vants, but not a relative of the pair who had sought to put 
sunshine into his life. Portraits of these two are to be hung, 
in accordance with his expressed wish, in Memorial Hall. 
Smith Library, in the town of Franklin, New Hampshire, 
receives $500, and his burial lot at Bellefontaine is endowed 
to the amount of $1,000. 

242 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Readers are indebted to the researches of the Secretary of 
the Harvard Club at St. Louis for most of what is known 
about the career of Smith after he left Cambridge. 

JOHN HENRY SULLIVAN, 

Only son of John Whiting and Marion (Dix) Sulli- 
van, was born at Dorchester, while his parents, residents of 
Boston, were temporarily living there, on October 30, 1832. 
His mother was a sister of General John A. Dix of Civil War 
fame. 

When he was five years old, his parents removed to Cin- 
cinnati, thence to Virginia, and after some years returned to 
Boston. His education was interrupted by illness and by acci- 
dents, amongst others his being run over by a heavy wagon. 
He was twice obliged to leave the Boston Latin School, hav- 
ing been admitted the second time in 1845. 

From 1846 to 1849 ^^ was a pupil of the Phillips Andover 
Academy, and in the latter year was admitted as Freshman 
at Harvard. During this period he passed seven weeks as 
a passenger in the United States sloop of war " Jamestown," 
sent to Cork in 1847 to carry supplies to the starving Irish.^ 

* Editorial Note. — Sullivan and Tenney sat together through college. 
Tenney was the first man whom the class was to lose, dying by drowning, 
before the end of his first year out, on a voyage from New York to San 
Francisco. By a strange coincidence Sullivan was the third man to go, 
and he also to die by drowning, but in the treacherous waters of Lake 
Michigan, when not five years out of college. Few members of the class 
left Cambridge with better promise of continued life, I knew Sullivan 
well when he was at the Latin School in 1845-46. He was one of the most 
attractive companions I ever had. Like Dr. Furness, just deceased, he had 
a genius for friendship. He lived at that time in Bowdoin Street — quite 
in my neighborhood — and I frequented his delightful home, drawn there 
perhaps especially by his invitation to use with him, in a vacant room, a 
fully equipped, miniature printing-press, upon which we ran off many a 
galley, working like slaves to do it — galley-slaves if you will — together. 
In the recital of his merits which found its way into the public press, some 
traits appear which must not be forgotten. His gift and taste for music, his 
lively fancy and sprightly wit, his unfailing spirits and generous heart, his 
demonstrated business capacity, his sterling qualities and winning man- 
ners, — these made the unlooked-for announcement of his death, both in 
Milwaukee and in Chicago, startling in its significance. Flags were seen 
at half-mast in both places, 

243 



Harvard Class of 1853 



After graduation he studied law for two years in the office 
of Messrs. Baker & Peabody in Concord, New Hampshire. 
He then entered the Law School, where he passed a year, and 
soon after migrated to the West He settled first in Clinton, 
Iowa, but soon after removed to Chicago, where he exchanged, 
temporarily it is said, the practice of his legal profession for 
a position in the Commercial Agency Office of Douglas & Co. 
Here he remained until the spring of 1858, when he was com- 
missioned to superintend the Milwaukee Branch of the 
Agency. He was also connected, from time to time, as cor- 
respondent, contributor, and literary critic, with various news- 
papers in New England and the West. Wherever he went he 
made warm and appreciative friends, both among business 
acquaintances and in general society. 

He had been but a few months at Milwaukee when, on the 
27th of August, 1858, he and his friend Jennings went out for 
a row on the lake in the " Galatea," belonging to the Galatea 
Boat Club, of which Sullivan was a member. Both were ac- 
complished water-men. He was especially accustomed to the 
management of a boat, having had much practice at Plymouth, 
where he spent his summer vacations. But a very heavy sea 
and a gale came on at nightfall, and they did not return. The 
members of the club secured a tug-boat and went in search of 
their missing friends. When the news reached Chicago, a 
party started immediately for Milwaukee and joined in the 
search. Tell-tale fragments of the " Galatea " were found 
scattered along the lake-shore within a distance of six or seven 
miles, easily recognized by her owners and builder. Day 
after day the fruitless search was renewed, and rewards were 
offered to enlist the services of the long-shore fishermen. The 
body of his friend Jennings was at length found, half buried 
in the sand, but that of Sullivan was never recovered. When 
all hope of his safety was given up, the Galatea Boat Club 
met and passed resolutions of a warmly eulogistic nature, 
" deeply and sincerely deploring the removal from this life 
of our late friend and fellow clubman, John H. Sullivan, 
whose refined and scholarly attainments, blameless life, and 
generous impulses endeared him, by ties of no ordinary re- 

244 



Harvard Class of 1853 



gard, to each and every member of our association." The 
Wisconsin Bar also passed resolutions indicative of their 
warm feeling and respect for Mr. Sullivan. 
He was never married. 

EDWARD JARVIS TENNEY, 

Son of John and Mary Augusta (Bartlett) Tenney, 
was born at Methuen, Massachusetts, September 20, 1833. 

At the age of nine or ten he was placed under the instruc- 
tion of the Rev. Isaac Reed, of Gilmanton, New Hampshire, 
where he remained until 1848. One year was passed at Phil- 
lips Andover Academy, and he entered Harvard as Freshman 
in 1849.^ 

His life after graduation was destined to be very short. 
His was the first death in the class. After occupying himself 
with the settlement of the estate of his father, then recently 
deceased, he was introduced to the firm of Messrs. Alsop & 
Co., of New York, and from them obtained an agency, or like 
position connected with their business, at Valparaiso, Chile. 
To reach that place he received, by special favor, the nominal 
appointment of captain's clerk on the steamer " San Fran- 
cisco," bound for the port of that name by way of the Straits 

* Editorial Note, — While in Cambridge, Tenney was the hero of one 
of the striking episodes of our college life. He was summoned before the 
Faculty for some irregularity which that body saw fit to visit with suspen- 
sion, but which many of his classmates regarded in a more venial light. 
Accordingly, on the morning when his sentence was to take effect, a fine 
barouche-and-four appeared at the College Gate, and Tenney, supported by 
Dorsheimer, both striking figures, were driven around the college grounds 
and thence to Boston, where they were set down with much ceremony at 
the Revere House. The commotion occasioned amongst the crowd of 
guests at that favorite hostelry by the unexplained arrival with such cir- 
cumstance of two young and unknown personages, was only equalled by 
what followed immediately after, when they left the hotel, arm in arm, 
and proceeded to perch themselves upon the top of an omnibus headed for 
Cambridge. 

As the equipage had left the College Gate for Boston, amidst the wild 
cheering of a crowd of undergraduates, President Sparks appeared upon 
the scene, showing a good deal of emotion, and, addressing some students 
by name, among them the writer, expressed his astonishment and regret 
at finding them countenancing by their presence so reprehensible a 
performance. 

245 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of Magellan, and engaged by the United States as a transport 
ship for the men and families of eight companies of the 3d 
Regiment, United States Artillery. She sailed from New 
York on the 226. of December, 1853. Tenney was assigned 
a stateroom on deck constructed for temporary use. The 
ship, though new, was leaky. Bad weather was at once en- 
countered, and on the night of the 24th a heavy sea washed 
Tenney's stateroom overboard, with the others similarly situ- 
ated, containing some hundred occupants. The ship became a 
total wreck, was with difficulty kept from sinking, and was 
finally abandoned with the loss of some hundred lives. Al- 
though the majority of those on board were ultimately res- 
cued by passing vessels, it was only after undergoing extreme 
hardships and perils. So perished one of our most hopeful 
classmates. 

Tenney was not married. 

FRANCIS WALES VAUGHAN 

Of Boston, Librarian of the Social Law Library, was born 
in Hallowell, Maine, June 5, 1833, son of Charles and Mary 
Susan (Abbot) Vaughan. His great-grandfather, Samuel 
Vaughan, was a London merchant and West India planter, 
whose son Charles, born in England, came to this country in 
1786, was for some years a merchant in Boston, and after- 
ward removed to Hallowell. His mother was a daughter of 
the Rev. Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, a descendant of George 
Abbot, of Andover, who came to this country from England 
about 1640. 

Vaughan was fitted for college partly at the Hallowell 
Academy, partly at the Hopkins Classical School in Cam- 
bridge, whither his father had removed in 1847. He entered 
Harvard College in 1849, ^"^ graduated in 1853. 

After spending a year in the Harvard Law School, he en- 
tered the office of Henry Vose, of Springfield, afterward a 
Justice of the Superior Court, with whom he remained for 
fifteen months. Completing his studies in the office of George 
M. Browne, of Boston, he was admitted to the Suffolk Bar 
in December, 1856, and opened an office in Boston, but prac- 

246 



Harvard Class of 1853 



tised only a few months. From July, 1857, to the winter 
of 1861-62, he was employed, as civil-assistant and computer, 
by Captain Andrew A. Humphreys and Lieutenant Henry L. 
Abbot, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, U. S. A., in 
Washington, being engaged upon work connected with the 
Pacific Railroad Surveys and the so-called Mississippi Delta 
Survey, and making up their elaborate reports. Lieutenant 
Abbot married his cousin. On the appointment of Major 
Humphreys as chief topographical engineer of the Army of 
the Potomac in 1862, he accompanied him to the Peninsula as 
civil-assistant, and remained with him and with the officers 
who succeeded him until 1864. Spending two years in Wash- 
ington, he returned to Boston in 1866, and in January, 1870, 
was appointed to the position of Librarian of the Social Law 
Library, succeeding James Boyle, whose service of forty 
years had been terminated by his sudden death. This library, 
now one of the best law-libraries of the country, was founded 
in 1804 by some of the most eminent lawyers of that day; 
and its present membership includes the leading men at the 
Suffolk Bar. Within the past twenty-five years the number 
of proprietors and annual subscribers has increased from two 
hundred and fifty to eight hundred and fifty, and the number 
of volumes from ten thousand to more than twenty-seven 
thousand. It owed much to the intelligence and fidelity of its 
Librarian. Mr. Vaughan never held office other than that of 
Librarian, and never married. He was a member of the Bar 
Association of the City of Boston, the Boston Library Society, 
the Bostonian Society, the Harvard Musical Association, the 
Harvard Law School Association, and the Colonial Club, 
Cambridge. 

Vaughan sailed for Italy with a niece on March 14, 1908, 
intending to pass several months in Europe, the journey hav- 
ing been mostly undertaken for the benefit of her health. A 
day or two after their arrival at Naples and on an excursion 
to the Island of Capri, where he was passing the night, April 
2, 1908, he was found dead in his bed. His funeral and inter- 
ment took place on the Island. 

Vaughan was constant in his attendance at class functions 

247 



Harvard Class of 1853 



of every kind and was always welcome. His valued service 
at the Law Library thus nearly equalled the long official term 
of his predecessor, also brought to a close by sudden death. 

DAVID HENSHAW WARD, 

Son of Andrew Henshaw and Sarah (Henshaw) 
Ward, was born at Boston, June 23, 1830. He was a great- 
grandson of General Artemas Ward of the Revolution, and 
a nephew of David Henshaw, Secretary of the Navy and Col- 
lector of the Port of Boston and Charlestown. He had an 
ancestor in the Boston " Tea Party." Ward's home in boy- 
hood was at West Newton. 

He was educated at the Leicester Academy, at the Chauncy 
Hall School, and at the Boston Latin School, where he entered 
in 1845 ^^d completed a four years' course. He was averse to 
entering college, having a preference for business pursuits. 
But he was admitted at Harvard in 1849 ^s Freshman and 
graduated regularly in 1853. Probably no member of the 
class engaged in the business of life so early as he, for on 
January i of that year he had become a partner with two of 
his brothers, William and Joseph W., in the firm of Ward 
Brothers & Company of New York, who were the financial 
agents of the Rock River Valley Company of Wisconsin. 
When this company was consolidated with the Northern Illi- 
nois, forming the Chicago & Northwestern, Ward returned 
to Boston, in 1854, and was made a partner in the firm of 
Ward &; Brothers, wholesale dealers in dye stuffs and 
chemicals. 

On the 5th of July, 1855, he married Julia Frances, daugh- 
ter of Joseph Noble, of the firm of Noble, Hammett & Co. of 
New York. 

In 1858 Ward moved to Keokuk, Iowa, and engaged in the 
business of mining coal at Farmington, Iowa, but met with 
heavy losses from the successive inundations of the Missis- 
sippi, which flooded the whole country. Returning to New 
England in 1859, he negotiated the settlement of an insol- 
vent manufacturing concern in New Hampshire, and thereby 
acquired a third interest in two woolen mills — one in Ashue- 

248 



Harvard Class of 1853 



lot, and the other at Gilsum, New Hampshire — and, residing 
at Keene, did a very prosperous business until May 31, 1861, 
when the Ashuelot Mill burned down and left him penniless. 

He then spent a few months in Virginia with the 14th 
Massachusetts Regiment, taking, by request of the Colonel, 
the duties, except the parade, of the Adjutant, who was ab- 
sent on leave, and in the expectation of having a commission, 
for which he applied to Governor Andrew, but was unsuccess- 
ful; although the officers of the i8th Massachusetts elected 
him Major, and, without his knowledge, requested his com- 
mission. This failure he attributed to the fact that his family 
had been prominent Democrats. With the 14th Regiment he 
never had any official connection. 

The condition of his wife's health recalled him to New 
Hampshire. The townspeople of Ashuelot offered to rebuild 
the mill and make Ward a present of it, as an inducement for 
him to stay. Not wishing to be under obligations, he rebuilt 
the mill with borrowed money which a successful business en- 
abled him to pay of¥. He was exempted from taxation for ten 
years, and the property was sold in 1867, at a price which 
warranted the leisure spent in Europe in 1867 and 1868. 

In September of the latter year Ward returned to Boston, 
took a house on Boylston Street, and resumed manufacturing 
at Ashuelot, having repurchased the property, in partnership 
with Hunt, Tillinghast & Co. of New York. At about this 
time his wife's health began to fail, and a visit to the South 
every winter became imperative, this resulting in his taking 
up a residence in California. In 1870 he closed his business 
in New Hampshire, sold his house in Boston, and moved to 
Newport, Rhode Island, and for three years passed his sum- 
mers in that city and his winters in Southern climates. In 
1873 he changed his residence from Newport to Oakland, 
California, which became his home for the rest of his life. 

For the next five years Ward was engaged in the manage- 
ment of important trusts, including that of the Shafter and 
Marvin estates, to which he added, in 1879, the business in 
San Francisco of the Syndicate of Contractors for the con- 
struction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in British Columbia. 

249 



Harvard Class of 1853 



This involved the supervision of accounts, purchase and ship- 
ping of supplies and machinery, hiring and forwarding of la- 
borers for the Onderdonk Contracts, so called, in the interest 
of Mr. Darius Ogden Mills, and in that interest going twice 
to China, in 1880 and 1881. The second time, he had eight 
ships and six steamers under charter and sent five thousand 
men to British Columbia and eleven hundred to San Francisco. 
Ward had no personal interest in the Contracts. He succeeded 
in all that was undertaken, to the satisfaction of all the parties 
interested. 

During the continuance of the railroad business his wife 
died, on November 12, 1880, after a long and painful illness. 
He married again, on November 19, 1881, Sarah Har- 
wood Babcock, daughter of Rear Admiral Andrew A. 
Harwood and widow of Dr. Heman P. Babcock. Her father, 
through the family of Bache, was a descendant of Benjamin 
Franklin. 

In 1883 and 1884 Ward gave up the business of the rail- 
road, and took the Vice-Presidency and general management 
of the Judson Manufacturing Company, a large concern with 
rolling mills, foundry and machine shops, engaged in the man- 
ufacturing of bar-irons, tracks and bolts, and iron and combi- 
nation highway and railroad bridges. His connection with 
this company lasted until 1889, when he was for a year out 
of business. 

In 1890 he became General Manager of the Notoma Vine- 
yard Company and had charge of a vineyard of fifteen hun- 
dred acres in connection with a farm of one thousand acres, 
the products being exclusively brandy, which mostly went to 
Germany. He was also, in 1891, General Manager for the 
American Concentrated Mast Company. He resigned his 
office in the Vineyard Company on April 10, 1905, and finally 
retired from business. 

In addition to his management of private trusts Ward was, 
from 1874 to 1876, Director of the Union Savings Bank of 
Oakland; from 1878 to 1894, of the Union National Bank; 
in 1879 and 1880, Member of the Board of Education and 
Chairman of the Finance and Judiciary Committee. 

250 



Harvard Class of 1853 



He was a member of the University Club and Harvard Club 
of San Francisco and President of the latter in 1889. 

Ward died at Oakland, of a distressing malady, on May 29, 
1906. He never had children. 

In all the vicissitudes of his business life. Ward's note was 
never protested; all debts were paid in full. He never tres- 
passed upon trust funds nor used them for his own benefit. 
What he lost and gave away was his own, and it was said of 
him that " he has handled millions belonging to others and is 
poor." 

GEORGE SMITH WARDWELL, 

Son of William Taylor and Mary (Hawes) Ward- 
well, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, August 22, 1829. 

Educated primarily in the infant schools of Mrs. Greene 
and Mr. Aldrich, at Providence, changes in the family resi- 
dence carried him, at the age of seven, to Niles, Berrien 
County, Michigan, and three years afterwards to Albion, Erie 
County, Pennsylvania. In Michigan his opportunities for pur- 
suing study were small, and it was not until after his settle- 
ment in Pennsylvania that he entered earnestly upon the 
studies required for admission to college. 

He was admitted to Allegheny College, Meadville, as 
Sophomore in 1848, and left it in his Senior year in 1851, 
when he was admitted to Harvard in the first term of the 
academic year 1851-52. On graduation in 1853 his Com- 
mencement part was a disquisition — " English Imitations of 
the Greek Drama.'' 

He entered the Harvard Law School immediately after, and 
there took the degree of LL.B. in 1855. He continued his 
studies at Buffalo, New York, was admitted to the Bar No- 
vember 10, 1856, and made that city his residence for the 
rest of his life. Besides being actively engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession he filled several municipal offices. He 
was City Attorney during the years 1866 and 1867, and City 
Clerk during the years 1869 ^"d 1870, and Attorney to the 
Buffalo Board of Police for ten years under an old organiza- 
tion known as the Niagara Frontier Police. The work of his 

251 



Harvard Class of 1853 



life in which he felt the most pride was that of building the 
City and County Hall, and the Jail, of Erie County. He was 
appointed a Commissioner for that work in 1872, and was 
elected Chairman of the Commission in 1873. The corner- 
stone of the City and County Hall was laid in 1872, and the 
building dedicated in 1876. In the latter year the power of the 
commission was extended to the building of the Jail, which 
was completed within two years. It has been claimed that 
these are the only public buildings in America that were 
finished within the estimated cost, which was a million and a 
half. 

On June 4, 1880, Ward well was appointed one of the two 
judges of the Municipal Court of Buffalo. The Act organiz- 
ing the Court provided for the appointment by the Mayor, 
with the consent of the Council, of two judges for the terms 
of six and five years respectively from January i, 1881, but as 
they were to assume duty immediately it practically gave them 
terms of six and a half, and five and a half years respectively. 
At the end of the first term they were to be elected by popular 
vote. Ward well was elected for a second term of six years, 
beginning January i, 1887. At its expiration, in 1893, he 
formed a partnership with Otto W. Volger and with his son 
George T. Wardwell, which lasted until his death. 

He was appointed Professor of Torts in the Buffalo Law 
School in 1887, and held the position until 1895. He was 
Treasurer of the Buffalo General Hospital from 1858 to 1861. 
He was the oldest member of the Buffalo Harvard Associa- 
tion, and the oldest Harvard man in the University Club. 

Judge George A. Lewis, his associate on the Bench for two 
terms, said of him: " In his relations with his colleagues and 
with the employees of the Court he showed a never failing 
courtesy. His fine, ruddy complexion and his snow-white 
hair and beard, added to his gracious dignity, made him a dis- 
tinguished figure on the Bench. He was a man who thought 
more of the things of the mind, of the spirit, than he did of 
accumulating wealth. There was not a streak of greed in his 
whole make-up. He was a man peculiarly domestic and retir- 
ing. He loved to spend his evenings among his books, history 

252 



Harvard Class of 1853 



perhaps finding special favor with him. Many a time have I 
known him to come down to the Bench, having sat up all night 
to read some book in which he had become absorbed." 

Wardwell was married, June 9, 1863, to Mary E., daughter 
of Hosea William and Margaretta Ruden Townsend, of Buf- 
falo, who survived him. Their children were : George Town- 
send, born August 28, 1864, died August 6, 1898; Mary Mar- 
garetta, born May 5, 1866; Frank Chandler, born June 10, 
1868; William Henry, born June 8, 1872; Charles Uzal, bom 
July I, 1874; Edward Townsend, born August 12, 1876, 
died October 16, 1880. 

Wardwell died October 18, 1895, at Buffalo, where he was 
very much esteemed. The Courts adjourned in his honor. 

JOHN DAVIS WASHBURN, 

Eldest child of John Marshall and of Harriet Web- 
ster Washburn, the daughter of the Rev. David Kimball, 
was born in Boston, Massachusetts, March 27, 1833. In that 
year his parents removed to Lancaster in Worcester County. 
In 1847-48 he attended the Partridge Academy in Duxbury, 
then under the charge of James Ritchie, and afterwards the 
Lancaster Academy until the summer of 1849. 

Entering Harvard College in the year last named, he passed 
through the regular course with creditable rank and great 
popularity. Upon leaving college he drifted about for a while, 
seemingly, as in the case of most of us, in some doubt as 
to an occupation. But ultimately he took up the study of 
the law, passed a term in the Dane Law School, and then 
sundry brief periods in the offices of Emory Washburn and 
George Frisbie Hoar, taking his LL.B. at Harvard in 1856. 
He became a specialist in the Law of Insurance, and was 
widely known at the time of his death in the insurance world. 

His life seemed to arrange itself in three periods: first, 
some years of strictly business occupation; then a term of 
local politics joined with business; and lastly, a career of 
public service followed by ten years of helplessness and wan- 
ing powers. 

Between 1866 and his appointment to Berne, he had been 

25S 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Chief of Staff to Governor Bullock; a member of the 
House of Representatives from 1876 to 1879, ^^ ^^e State 
Senate in 1884. He was a Trustee of the Worcester Lunatic 
Hospital for ten years, a Trustee of the Massachusetts School 
for the Feeble 'Minded, for eighteen years a Director in the 
Worcester County Savings Bank and one of its Vice-Presi- 
dents, and since 1862 a Director of the Merchants' and 
Farmers' Insurance Company, in the Presidency of which, in 
1883, he succeeded Isaac Davis. He was a member and Sec- 
retary of the American Antiquarian Society, and was a resi- 
dent member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. From 
1889 to 1892 he was United States Minister to the Swiss 
Republic. He then resigned and came home to Worcester, 
incapable of further continuous effort. After a protracted 
period of helplessness his death occurred at Worcester, April 
4, 1903. 

Washburn's remains were cremated at 'Boston and burled 
at Lancaster, A large body of insurance men from Boston, 
from Hartford and from New York were in attendance at 
his funeral. There were delegates from the Loyal Legion, 
from the American Antiquarian Society, from the Worcester 
County Institution for Savings, Trustees of the Worcester 
Hospital, Vestrymen of All Saints', and a delegation of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. The Honorable Stephen 
Salisbury and his classmate, Weld, were among the pall- 
bearers. The Worcester Board of Underwriters, whose con- 
stitution he had drafted, pronounced him " A true gentleman 
of the old school." The Protective Department, of which he 
was a Director from its organization, put on record this 
tribute : " We recall his genial spirit ; his willingness to help 
younger men in their difficulties; his cheering word; his 
keen insight into perplexing problems, and the spirit of en- 
thusiasm and the nobility of character with which he ever 
endeavored to ennoble the Underwriting profession in this 
City and Commonwealth. Through more than forty years of 
activity his associates recall only inspiring memories of a high- 
minded, devoted, and serviceable life." 

The Superior Court adjourned its morning session during 

254 



Harvard Class of 1853 



the funeral. All the insurance offices in Worcester closed at 
noon. Tributes were not lacking from high sources. The 
Honorable Stephen Salisbury, President of the American An- 
tiquarian Society, addressed that body in these words: 

" His services to the society have been important and long 
continued, and our proceedings have been much enriched and 
illuminated by his facile and eloquent contributions. Six 
reports of the Council were made by Mr. Washburn while 
acting as Recording Secretary, all of them of high literary 
merit and expressed with elegance and grace. The duties 
of Recording Secretary he performed with impartial fidelity 
and scrupulous exactness, and his friendly kindness toward 
all members of the society won for him their cordial 
regard. 

" His character, natural gifts, and attainments endeared 
him to his associates, and his long and faithful devotion to 
the society received the constant recognition of its members." 

The following minute was offered by the Recording Secre- 
tary, Charles A. Chase: 

" The council is called upon to-day, by the death of the 
Honorable John Davis Washburn, to lament the loss of a 
brilliant and loyal member. He rendered to our society many 
years of valued service as Recording Secretary, an office 
which he only laid down to enter upon the service of the 
Nation as its minister to a friendly Republic across the sea. 
He continued to be a councillor until the very last. 

" Besides his faithful clerical service, Mr. Washburn did 
considerable literary work for the society which was of value, 
and on the occasions when the council or the society met in a 
social way, his genial spirits and his brilliant conversation 
added greatly to the enjoyment of all present. 

" While the ill health against which he has serenely strug- 
gled during the past few years has prevented him from as- 
sisting in our deliberations, he has been with us in sympathy, 
and we most deeply regret the ending of so many years of 
delightful association." 

After remarks in eulogy by Nathaniel Paine, Samuel S. 
Greene, and Edward L. Davis, the minute was adopted. The 

255 



Harvard Class of 1853 



resident members of the society were invited to attend the 
funeral services. 

Washburn was married, in 1868, to Mary, the daughter 
of Charles Putnam, and they are survived by one daughter, 
Edith, the wife of Richard Ward Green. 

SYLVESTER WATERHOUSE, 

Son of Samuel H. and Dolla (Kingman) Waterhouse, 
was born at Barrington, New Hampshire, September 15, 1830. 

At the age of nine years Waterhouse met with an accident 
which changed the course of his life. On the 6th of May, 
1840, in attempting to get into a wagon while it was in mo- 
tion, his right leg passed between the spokes of a wheel and 
was instantly crushed. Amputation was resorted to just below 
the hip. From this moment the plans of his life were changed. 
Before this accident he had been destined for a trade, for 
his manual skill and his ingenuity gave promise of mechanical 
and inventive powers, but afterward his parents determined 
to educate him for a profession. In his fifteenth year he was 
sent to the Academy at Dover, then under the direction of 
John R. Varney. After remaining at this place one term he 
was removed to the Academy at Rochester, at that time under 
the instruction of Joseph Drew. A term of eleven weeks was 
spent at this institution, and subsequently sixteen weeks under 
the private instruction of Master Hills, at Dover. He next 
went to the Gilmanton Academy, where he passed two terms 
under the tuition of Charles Tenney, a good instructor. In 
1847 he entered Phillips Exeter Academy, where he remained 
three years, receiving honors in all branches except that of 
declamation. 

On March 7, 1 851, he entered the Sophomore class at Dart- 
mouth College and remained at Hanover sixteen weeks, but, 
preferring to graduate at Cambridge, joined the Junior class 
at Harvard, August 28, 1851. Waterhouse studied diligently, 
took a Bowdoin prize for Greek prose composition, and at 
Commencement was awarded an English oration — " The 
Political and Moral Philosophy of Napoleon." 

The writer has not been able to learn how the year imme- 

256 



Harvard Class of 1853 



diately following graduation was passed, but conjectures that 
it may have been in teaching or study in a lawyer's office or 
both. It is certain that he entered the Harvard Law School 
in September, 1854, and left in 1856 in consequence of an 
appointment to the Professorship of Latin Language and Lit- 
erature in Antioch College, Ohio. He received his degree of 
LL.B. at Cambridge in 1857. In that year he was offered and 
accepted a position as instructor in Washington University, 
St. Louis, and became in 1864 University Professor of Greek. 
Four years later the chair received an endowment of $25,000 
from the Messrs. John P., Maurice D., and Thomas F. Collier, 
" In grateful recognition by his former pupils of the fidelity, 
learning, and ability with which Professor Waterhouse has 
for years discharged his duties." These duties were dis- 
charged until the close of the academic year 1900-01, when 
he retired with the appointment of Professor Emeritus of 
Greek. 

In addition to his early misfortune he met with a carriage 
accident in 1867, by which he lost an eye and suffered a per- 
manent lesion of the spine, the effects of which he felt to the 
end of his life in continual pain, which literary work and the 
nervous exhaustion of the class room increased. 

With all the drawbacks with which he had to contend, 
Waterhouse exhibited a prodigious mental activity and en- 
ergy, largely outside of his academic work and in matters 
wholly foreign to it. This power may perhaps be explained 
by the original vigor of his constitution, which survived all 
shocks. It is said that he was noted among the students of 
the University as one of the strongest physical types of man- 
hood in St. Louis. When he was sixty years old, he could 
draw his chin up to the horizontal bar in the gymnasium. 
While he was at Harvard, one of the towers of Gore Hall was 
undergoing repairs. Waterhouse found his way to the top 
of it, and stood on his single foot swinging his crutch in the 
air. When he was about to appear at one of the half-yearly 
exhibitions to which his college rank entitled him, the class 
presented him with an artificial leg. But his remaining limb 
had naturally grown to be so directly under his body, like the 

257 



J 



Harvard Class of 1853 



pedestal under a bust, that the center of gravity rested above 
his foot. He tried his new acquisition several times while in 
Cambridge, but did not like it. 

His only contributions to classical learning seem to have 
been " A Course of Lectures on Grecian Literature and Art," 
1863, and an article or pamphlet on the " Study of Greek," 
1898, and, perhaps we may add, a pamphlet combining things 
ancient and modern entitled " Pliny's Knowledge of Ramie," 
1896, which, like many others of Waterhouse's writings, was 
translated into German. It is said on good authority that 
Waterhouse was peculiar among professors of Greek in be- 
lieving that the only value of Greek was its effect on English. 
But the list of his productions on subjects of public and eco- 
nomic interest reaches up into the hundreds. 

During the Civil War Professor Waterhouse's pen was con- 
stantly in requisition, as he was an active participant in the 
labors of the Western Sanitary Commission, and his powerful 
arguments in behalf of the Union cause were so serviceable 
as to attract the notice and win the approbation of President 
Lincoln. 

For many years he was intimately connected with the Mis- 
souri State Board of Immigration, and, by official request, 
prepared many papers for its use. In 1867 he was appointed 
by Governor Fletcher a delegate to the Mississippi River Im- 
provement Convention, held in St. Louis, and in the same year 
was offered the position of Assistant Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Schools of Missouri, but he declined that honor. In 1871 
he was appointed a member of the State Bureau of Geology 
and Mines, and in the following year was elected Secretary 
of the St. Louis Board of Trade. On retiring from that posi- 
tion, being about to make a tour around the world, he was 
the honored recipient of a watch and chain. Of the years 
1872 and 1873 he spent about eighteen months in travel. 
While in China he observed the usefulness of ramie as a textile 
fibre. An investigation of the conditions of its growth led him 
to believe that it could be raised in our Gulf States. For more 
than a quarter of a century he strenuously urged the domesti- 
cation of this plant. 

258 



Harvard Class of 1853 



In 1875 he served as a member of the National Railroad 
Convention, held in St. Louis, and of the Mississippi River 
Improvement Convention, held at St. Paul in 1877. He was 
selected by the Executive Committee of the latter body to 
prepare a memorial to Congress the influence of which did 
much to enlarge the appropriations for the necessary river- 
improvements. In 1878 Professor Waterhouse was appointed 
United States Commissioner both to the Paris Exposition, and 
to the World's Fair which it was proposed to hold in New 
York in 1883. He was appointed delegate in 1883 to the 
National Cotton Planters' Convention at Vicksburg, Missis- 
sippi, and in 1884 he was an Honorary Commissioner to the 
World's Fair at New Orleans. 

In 1884 he was appointed by Governor Crittenden a delegate 
to the National Conference of Charities and Correction which 
convened in St. Louis. In 1886 he was appointed, by the 
Executive Council of New York, Secretary, for the State of 
Missouri, of the National American Tariff League. In 1887 
he was appointed Commissioner from St. Louis to the Ameri- 
can Exposition which was held in London. In 1892 he was 
chosen by the St. Louis Merchants' Exchange a delegate to 
the Nicaragua Canal Convention, which was held at New 
Orleans in November of the same year. He was appointed by 
the President of the Merchants' Exchange a delegate both to 
the Trans-Mississippi Congress, held at Omaha, November 
25' i895' and to the National Association of American Manu- 
facturers, held at Chicago, January 21, 1896. 

In 1897 he was appointed, by both the Mayor of the city and 
the President of the Merchants' Exchange, to represent the 
municipal and mercantile interests of St. Louis at the Trans- 
Mississippi Commercial Congress, held at Salt Lake City, 
July 14-17, 1897. In 1898 he was honored by appointment 
of the Governor of Missouri as a Commissioner to the Trans- 
Mississippi Exposition held at Omaha, Nebraska. In 1898 
he was appointed by the Mayor of St. Louis a delegate to the 
Good-Roads Convention, held in St. Louis, November 21-23, 
1898. He was appointed by both the Mayor of St. Louis and 
the President of the Merchants' Exchange a delegate to the 

259 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress held at Wichita, Kan- 
sas, May 31, 1899, and to that held at Houston, Texas, April 
17-20, 1900. 

Before each of the conventions of which he was a member 
he delivered an address, and several of these were printed 
separately and also translated into German. 

In 1883 Waterhouse received the degree of LL.B. from the 
State University of Missouri, and in 1884 that of Ph.D. from 
Dartmouth College. Many benefactions of public utility were 
due to the suggestions of Professor Waterhouse — amongst 
them the gift to Washington University by Stephen Ridgely 
of a fund which has amounted to more than $100,000; 
the erection of an Art Gallery Memorial Hall, by Mr. Way- 
man Crow as a monument to his son, costing $150,000; 
the endowment by Mr. Henry Shaw, distinguished as a 
horticulturist, of a professorship of botany in Washington 
University. 

His articles upon the cultivation of jute in the United States 
have been honored with the highest recognition on the part of 
the United States Commissioners of Agriculture. A very 
wide circulation, their translation into French and German, 
and the utilization of his ideas by various individuals and cor- 
porations, are ample proof of their value. 

All this manifold labor Professor Waterhouse performed 
without compensation and frequently at his own personal ex- 
pense. Waterhouse died, on February 12, 1902, at the Mul- 
lanphy Hospital, St. Louis, exhibiting a stoical courage and 
self-possession to the last. " I am getting ready for the grim 
messenger," he said to a newspaper visitor who called at his 
apartments a short time before he was removed to the hos- 
pital. " I have been warned that life is only a question of 
days and perhaps of hours for me. If Providence will be 
kind to me, as He always has been, I may finish putting 
my papers in shape for those who may find some amusement 
in them." 

In 1888 he sent this report of himself, in December, to the 
Class Secretary: 



260 



Harvard Class of 1853 



St. Louis, December 27th, 1888. 
Samuel S. Shaw, Esq. 

Dear Classmate: 

This is my thirty-second year in Washington University. 
My duties have been arduous. In its early days the University 
was seriously embarrassed by the want of an adequate endow- 
ment. The work of a large faculty devolved upon a small one. 
The services incident to the care of several departments were per- 
formed by each member of the corps of instruction. Now, as my 
professional life is drawing to a close, ampler funds afford relief 
and permit an easier distribution of labor. 

My natural tastes are strongly practical. The little leisure 
spared by an exacting profession has been devoted to the discus- 
sion of industrial topics. The extension of our railroad system, 
the improvement of the Mississippi River, the establishment of 
Iron Works in St. Louis, the culture of Jute and Ramie in our 
Gulf States, and a wider diversification of our domestic industries 
are representative subjects which indicate the direction of my 
researches. 

My health is not good. In 1867 an accident produced a concus- 
sion of the spine and, since that date, there has never been a mo- 
ment's exemption from pain. Literary work and the nervous ex- 
haustion of the class room greatly increase my sufferings. The 
distress caused by mental exertion deters me from many under- 
takings that are congenial to my tastes. 

In my uneventful career there have been no incidents worthy 
of mention. 

With kind regards to yourself and to my other classmates, 

I am, very truly yours, 

S. Waterhouse. 



And again, also in response to the yearly summons to the 
Class Supper of 1892, Waterhouse reported in these words: 



St. Louis, January 22nd, 1892. 
Mr. Samuel S. Shaw. 
Dear Classmate: 

More than a year ago, my health began to fail. For four 
months my illness confined me to my bed in the Hospital. My 
sufferings were intense. To the pains of disease were added the 

261 



Harvard Class of 1853 



tortures of a severe surgical operation. For weeks there was little 
expectation of my recovery, and even now my symptoms, serious 
and painful, encourage no hope of a full restoration to health. 

As it is impossible for me to attend your annual dinner, please 
accept for yourself, and convey to all the rest of my classmates, 
the kindest greetings and friendliest sentiments of 

Sylvester Waterhouse. 

The following list is said to be representative only, and not 
complete, of the productions of his untiring pen : 

"An Essay on the English Language," 1852; "The Phi- 
losophy of Dreams," 1853; "The Protectorate of the Holy 
Places," 1853; " The Character of Washington," 1861 ; " The 
Death of President C. C. Felton, of Harvard University," 
1862 ; " Johnson and Macaulay," 1863 '> " A Eulogy on Chan- 
cellor J. G. Hoyt," pamphlet, 1863; "The Dangers of a Dis- 
ruption of the Union, and the Necessity of a Free Missis- 
sippi," 1863; "In Union There Is Strength," 1863; "The 
Suppression of the Rebellion," 1863; "A Course of Lectures 
on Grecian Literature and Art," 1863 ; " Reflections on the 
Southern Rebellion," 1864; "The Heroines of the Union," 
1864; "The Women of the Border States," 1864; "Ameri- 
can and Grecian Affairs," 1864; "Historic Illustrations of 
the Effect of Disunion," 1864; " False Theories of Society," 
1864; "British Arrogance," 1865; "Address before the Mis- 
sissippi River Improvement Convention, held in St. Louis in 
1867," also printed in report of proceedings : " The Resources 
of Missouri," a series of articles written at the request of the 
State Board of Immigration and published first in the " New 
York Tribune " and then in pamphlet form in 1867; " The Fi- 
nancial Value of Ideas," 1867; "The St. Louis and Illinois 
Bridge," 1868; " St. Louis, the Future Capital of the United 
States," in "Resources of Missouri," 1867, and " De Bow's 
Review," 1868; "The Natural Adaptation of St. Louis to 
Iron Manufactures," pamphlet, 1869; " Remarks at the Wash- 
ington University Banquet, on the Death of Thomas F. Col- 
lier," 1869; "The Rochester and Nashua Railroad," 1869; 
" Union Stock Yards," 1869; " Speech at the New England 
Banquet," 1869; "The Iron Question," 1870; "Remarks 

262 



Harvard Class of 1853 



at the Washington University Banquet," 1870; "Reply 
to the Statements of Honorable William D. Kelly," 1870; 
" Speech at the New England Banquet," 1870; letter to Gov- 
ernor B. G. Brown on " Skilled Labor," 1870; " A Lecture on 
the Advantages of Educated Labor," pamphlet, 1872; letter 
to Honorable George S. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury, 
on " The Location of the New Post Office in St. Louis," 1872 ; 
" Speech in Acknowledgment of the Gift of a Gold Watch and 
Chain by the St. Louis Board of Trade," 1872; three lectures 
on " Travels in Japan," 1874; " Address before the National 
Railroad Convention, held in St. Louis in 1875," i" report of 
proceedings ; " The Culture of Jute," United States Agricul- 
tural Report, 1876, and pamphlet editions, 1876 and 1883; an 
article on "The Death of John P. Collier," pamphlet, 1877; 
"American and Foreign Universities," 1877; "Memorial to 
Congress for the Improvement of the Mississippi River," pre- 
pared at the request of the Executive Committee of the Con- 
vention which was held at St. Paul in 1877, pamphlet, 1877; 
" Commercial Suggestions," pamphlet, 1879; letter on " Abu- 
tilon Avicennae (Jute)," Report of United States Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture, 1879; letter to Governor Thomas C. 
Fletcher on "Immigration," 1880; "Sketch of St. Louis," 
written for the United States Census of 1880, but published 
in 1887, in Volume XIX of the " Social Statistics of Cities "; 
letter to President Grant on " The International Exhibition," 
which was to be held in New York in 1883, 1881 ; letter to 
Governor T. T. Crittenden on the same subject, 1881 ; an ad- 
dress at the banquet on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of 
Washington University, in report of proceedings, 1882; letter 
to Mr. Koelkenbec on the " Culture of Flax in the United 
States," New Jersey Bureau of Statistics, 1882; letters to 
James Bishop on " Jute," and also on " Flax," New Jersey 
Bureau of Statistics, 1882; an article on "The Culture of 
Jute," 1883; "A Tribute to Harvard University," 1883; "A 
Sketch of Jeremiah Kingman, of Barrington, New Hamp- 
shire," in Cunningham's " History of Phillips Exeter Acad- 
emy," 1883; " Remarks on the One Hundredth Anniversary 
of Phillips Exeter Academy," circular issued by trustees, 

263 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1883; "Address to the National Planters' Convention, held 
at Vicksburg, Mississippi," in report of proceedings, 1883; 
chapters on the " Early History of St. Louis," in Scharf's 
" History of St. Louis," 1883 ; " A Sketch of Honorable Way- 
man Crow," in Scharf's " History of St. Louis," 1883; " The 
Parks of New York City," Report of the Commissioner, 1884; 
"Compulsory Education," 1884; "The Industrial Revival 
of Mexico," 1884, translated into Spanish; "Address to the 
National Industrial Convention, held at Chicago in 1884," i^i 
report of proceedings ; " Address to the International Asso- 
ciation of Fairs and Expositions," 1884; "The Boyhood of 
Eminent Men," 1884; "Address to the First National Con- 
vention of American Cattlemen, held in St. Louis in 1884," 
in report of proceedings ; " The Cause of Commercial Depres- 
sions," 1885 ; " Address before the Fifth Annual Convention 
of the National Agricultural Association, held at New Orleans 
in 1885," in report of proceedings; " An Obituary Sketch of 
Honorable Wayman Crow," 1885; "The American Fair in 
London," 1885; " The Relations of Capital and Labor," 1886, 
published in the " Labor Problem " of William E. Barns, and 
also translated into French; letter to Mr. Godin, Guise, 
France, 1886, translated into French; "Address to the St. 
Louis Harvard Club in Commemoration of the Two Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of Harvard University, 1886"; 
"Jute and Ramie," 1887; "American Fibre Industries," 
1887; " A Protest to Congress against the Proposed Removal 
of the Duties on Imported Jute and Ramie," 1888; " An Ap- 
peal to the People of his Native State in Behalf of St. Louis 
as the Site of the World's Fair," pamphlet, 1889; " The West- 
ward Movement of Capital," pamphlet, 1890; "American 
Commerce in 1900," pamphlet, 1891 ; " Speech in Com- 
memoration of Henry Shaw," Report of Missouri Botanical 
Garden, 1891; "Trip to Puget Sound," 1891 ;' "The 
Mississippi and its Affluents," pamphlet, 1892; "An Obitu- 
ary on Judge John H. Lightner," 1892 ; " The Influence of 
our Northern Forests on the Navigation of the Mississippi," 
pamphlet, 1892; "Sketches of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Ridg- 
ley," pamphlet, 1892; "An Address on the Benefits of the 

264! 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Nicaragua Canal," delivered before the Nicaragua Canal Con- 
vention held at St. Louis in 1892, in report of proceedings and 
separate pamphlet; a series of twenty-four articles on the 
"Early History and Social Customs of St. Louis," 1892; 
letter to the State Commissioner of the Columbian Exposition 
on " The Commercial Value of New Hampshire Scenery," 
1892; an address on " The Governmental Control of the Nica- 
ragua Canal," delivered before the Nicaragua Canal Conven- 
tion held at New Orleans in 1892, in report of proceedings 
and separate pamphlet, translated into German; "New St. 
Louis," pamphlet, 1893, translated into German; letter to 
Mr. E. C. Simmons on " The Location of a Public Museum in 
Forest Park," 1893; articles on the "Removal and Larger 
Endowment of Washington University," 1894; "The Im- 
portance of Ramie to the Agricultural Prosperity of our Gulf 
States," pamphlet, 1894, translated into German and Spanish; 
" Incidents of an Interview with Captain Lyon, and the En- 
trance of Lieutenant Schofield into Active Service at the Be- 
ginning of our Civil War," 1894; an address before the 
Nicaragua Canal Convention held at St. Louis in 1894, in 
report of proceedings and separate pamphlet, translated into 
German ; an address on " Ramie " before the Trans-Missis- 
sippi Commercial Congress, held at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1895, 
in report of proceedings and separate pamphlet, translated into 
German; an address on "The Nicaragua Canal," delivered 
before the National Association of American Manufacturers, 
held at Chicago in 1896, in report of proceedings and separate 
pamphlet, translated into German ; " Pliny's Knowledge of 
Ramie," 1896, translated into German; "Report on the 
Operation of a New Defibrator for Mexican Plants," 1896, 
translated into Spanish ; three addresses on " The Nicaragua 
Canal," "Ramie," and "Forestry," delivered before the 
Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, held at Salt Lake 
City in 1897, in report of proceedings and separate pamphlet; 
an address on " The Importance of our Highways," delivered 
before the State Convention for Public Improvements, held at 
St. Louis in 1897, in report of proceedings; an address to 
the people of Missouri on " The Benefits of the Omaha Expo- 

265 



Harvard Class of 1853 



sition," 1898; an address on " Good Roads," before the State 
Convention, held at St. Louis in 1898, in report of proceed- 
ings; "The Study of Greek," 1898; "A New Method of 
Printing," 1898; " Industrial Education at the Omaha Expo- 
sition," 1898; "A World's Fair and a Museum, the Most 
Useful Means of Commemorating the One Hundredth Anni- 
versary of the Purchase of Louisiana," 1898; three addresses 
on " Ancient and Modern Canals," " Ramie," and " The Com- 
merce of the Far East," delivered before the Trans-Missis- 
sippi Commercial Congress, held at Wichita, Kansas, 1899, in 
report of proceedings — the first of these addresses v^as trans- 
lated into German; " Usona (the initials of * United States of 
North America'), a More Exact Postal Designation of our 
Country than U. S.," 1899; an address on "Trade with the 
Orient," delivered before the Trans-Mississippi Congress, held 
at Houston, Texas, in 1900, in report of proceedings, trans- 
lated into German; " The Importance to St. Louis of a Deep 
Water Channel to the Gulf," 1900; "The Commercial Im- 
portance of a World's Fair to Missouri," 1900, translated into 
German ; " The Benefits which a Universal Exposition would 
Confer upon St. Louis," 1900, translated into German. 
Waterhouse was never married. 

AARON DAVIS WELD, 

Eldest son of Aaron Davis and Abby (Harding) Weld, 
was born at Boston, Massachusetts, October 8, 1831. When 
he was five years old, his parents removed to West Roxbury. 

He commenced his preparation for college with Mr. Wil- 
liam Atkinson, and, after passing through the hands of six 
instructors and spending one more year at the Roxbury Latin 
School, then under the auspices of H. Q. Butterfield, he en- 
tered Harvard College as Freshman in 1849. 

Immediately after graduating he entered into the employ of 
Messrs. Atkins & Stedman, dealers in crockery, and remained 
with them three years. At the end of that time he went into 
his father's office as clerk, and in 1859 became a partner with 
his father under the firm name of Aaron D. Weld & Son. 
The business was a general brokerage in fibres of all kinds and 

266 



Harvard Class of 1853 



an importing business in Russian goods. Subsequently he 
went to London and secured the agency of Ker & Co., of 
Manila, dealers in hemp and sugar. On the retirement of 
their father, January i, 1867, the business was continued by 
Weld and his brother Richard, under the firm name of Aaron 
D. Weld's Sons, a partnership into which Weld's son, Bernard 
C, and Richard's son, Richard H., were afterwards admitted. 
During late years Weld was practically retired from business, 
much of his time being spent in the care of his father's estate. 
Weld was a Sinking Fund Commissioner of the City of Bos- 
ton for ten years from May i, 1886, to May i, 1896; was a 
Director in the International Trust Company and the Boston 
Tow Boat Company ; and President of the Forest Hills Cem- 
etery Corporation and of the Avery Chemical Company. 

Weld died, February 28, 1907, in a hospital at Riverside, 
California. He had been, for several previous years, in the 
habit of spending a large part of the winter in that State, but 
his journey, this year, was interrupted by a severe illness from 
which he rallied and was apparently convalescing, when he 
suddenly expired, to the great sorrow of a large circle of 
friends and especially of his surviving classmates. 

No man ever found a larger share of the enjoyment of life 
in strong personal attachments than did Weld. His friends' 
successes and enjoyments he made his own. His round, ruddy 
face, surmounted with a crown of crisp-curling, white hair, 
was a benediction wherever he appeared. 

Weld married, on September i, 1859, Annie Warren, daugh- 
ter of George Washington and Mary Spooner Cofifin, of Ja- 
maica Plain. Their children were : Frederic Coffin, born Sep- 
tember 12, 1864 (H. U. 1886) ; Bernard Coffin, born March 
12, 1868 (H. U. 1889); Helen Coffin, born November i, 
1869, deceased; Winthrop Coffin, born December 12, 1873, 
deceased; Phillips Coffin, born December 12, 1876, deceased. 
Weld's widow survives. 

JAMES CLARKE WHITE, 

Son of James Patterson and Mary Ann (Clarke)' 
White, was born at Belfast, Maine, on July 7, 1833. He was 

267 



Harvard Class of 1853 



descended from William White, who, as an infant, was pres- 
ent in Londonderry, Ireland, during the memorable siege of 
that town (1705) described by Macaulay, and who came to 
this country in 1725 and settled in Londonderry, New 
Hampshire. 

He was educated in the schools of his native town, and pre- 
pared for college at the Belfast Academy, until fire put an 
untimely end to the career of that excellent institution, and 
scattered its instructors, after which he drifted from pillar to 
post amongst the local clergymen who had schooling enough 
to guide his studies. But it will readily be perceived that he, 
one of the youngest of the class, and thus ill-prepared, reached 
Cambridge a total stranger having a good stock of persistency 
to rely upon. He entered Harvard in 1849 ^s Freshman. 
He was greatly interested in Natural History during his last 
three years in college, and his commencement part — a dis- 
quisition, " Wilson the Naturalist " — was much more appro- 
priate to the speaker than were many others. 

Immediately after leaving college he began the study of 
medicine in the Harvard Medical School. While there he 
received a Boylston Prize for an essay on the subject of the 
" Analysis of Urinary Calculi," and took his degree of M.D. 
in 1856. The rest of the year 1856 and the year 1857 were 
passed in Europe in the medical schools of Vienna and Paris, 
chiefly in the study of demiatology. 

In the year 1858 he began the practice of medicine at Bos- 
ton, where he has since lived. During this year he was ap- 
pointed Instructor in Chemistry, delivered lectures on " Para- 
sites " in the Harvard Medical School, became a member of 
the medical staff of the St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, 
Curator of Comparative Anatomy in the Boston Natural 
History Society, and received a second Boylston Prize for 
an essay on the subject of " Human Parasites, Animal and 
Vegetable." 

The record of Dr. White's subsequent appointments and 
occupations arranged chronologically is as follows : 
i860. Delegate to National Committee to revise the United 
States Pharmacopceia. 
268 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1861. On Building Committee of the Boston Natural History 
Society. 

1863. Co-editorship of " Boston Medical and Surgical Jour- 

nal," held continuously through the years 1863, 1864, 
1865, and 1866. 
Chemist to Massachusetts General Hospital and Phy- 
sician to Boston Dispensary. 

1864. University Lecturer on skin diseases in the Medical 

School. 

1865. Physician to out-patients of the Massachusetts General 

Hospital. 

1866. Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in Harvard Medical 

School. 

1867. Visiting Physician to the Massachusetts General Hos- 

pital. 

1870. Consulting Physician to the City of Boston, and Phy- 

sician to the Department of Skin .Diseases at the 
Massachusetts General Hospital. 

1871. Professor of Dermatology, Harvard University. 
1877. First President of the American Dermatological Asso- 
ciation. 

1879. First Permanent Chairman of the Boston Society of 
Medical Improvement. 

1 88 1. Centennial Chairman of the Massachusetts Medical 
Society. 

1883. President of the Suffolk District Medical Society. 

1889. Orator of the Massachusetts Medical Society. The 
Annual Discourse on "The Relations of the 
Massachusetts Medical Society to Medical Edu- 
cation " was delivered before the society on June 11, 
1890. 
Honorary Secretary of the Boston Society of Natural 

History. 
Vice-President of the International Congress of Der- 
matology at Paris. 
1892-93. President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. 
1894. Vice-President of the International Congress of Der- 
matology at London. 
269 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1895-1905. Vice-President of the Medical Benevolent So- 
ciety of Massachusetts. 

1896. President of American Dermatological Association. 

1897. Reporter on prevalence of leprosy in the United States, 

at the Lepra-Conference at Berlin. 

President of Board of Physicians and Surgeons to out- 
patients, at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Corresponding member of the Vienna Dermatological 
Society. 

1898. Corresponding member of the Italian Dermatological 

Society. 

1899. Foreign Honorary Member of the Dermatological So- 

ciety of London. 

1900. President de Seance International, Congress of Derma- 

tology, at Paris. 

1902. Resignation of Professorship of Dermatology in Har- 

vard University to take effect at end of academical 

year, thus closing a continuous period of teaching 

of more than forty years. 
Appointed Professor of Dermatology Emeritus. 
Foreign Honorary Member of the Wiener Dermato- 

logische Gesellschaft. 

1903. Referat of the Fifth International Dermatological Con- 

gress at Berlin. 

Foreign Honorary Member of the Dermatologische 
Gesellschaft of Berlin. 

On Board of Consulting Physicians of Massachusetts 
General Hospital. 

On Board to suggest candidates for the Nobel Prize, 
Stockholm. 

Foreign Honorary Member of the Italian Dermato- 
logical Society. 

1904. Appointed President of the Sixth International Con- 

gress of Dermatology, to meet in New York in 1907. 
1906-09. President Massachusetts Medical Benevolent So- 
ciety. 
First President of Alumni of Massachusetts General 
Hospital. 

270 



Harvard Class of 1853 



1907. Corresponding Member Dermatological Society of Ar- 
gentina. 
A ward in Hospital of University of Cagliari receives 
his name. 
191 1. Member of Committee to Visit Medical School of 
Harvard University. 

The daily journal kept by Dr. White during his four col- 
lege years is published in Volume XXI of the Harvard Gradu- 
ates' Magazine. 

Dr. White has carried on an extensive private practice in 
addition to his official and literary labors. His various ad- 
dresses, articles, essays, translations, and communications to 
scientific societies amount to over three hundred and seventy 
in number. Perhaps the productions most likely to be appre- 
ciated by the non-professional reader, and most likely to in- 
terest his fellow graduates of Harvard, are his Introductory 
Lecture before the Medical School, November 2, 1870, ex- 
posing the faults in the teaching of that day, and his discourse 
before the Massachusetts Medical Society at their Annual 
Meeting in 1890 on " Medical Education." These are very 
business-like documents, in which no words are wasted, treating 
of the shortcomings of the medical education of the day, the 
unsatisfactory representation which the medical graduates and 
the medical profession generally have in the government of the 
University, and suggesting, among other things, an associa- 
tion of Medical Alumni similar to that of the Alumni of the 
Law School. Dr. White has had the satisfaction of seeing 
many of his reforms carried out. A compulsory fourth year 
at the Medical School has been established. A special ward 
for skin-diseases in connection with the Massachusetts General 
Hospital has been founded. A Medical Alumni Association 
was founded at once. The clinical opportunities of the Medi- 
cal School are in a way to be largely increased when the School 
is fully domesticated in its new quarters. 

Dr. White was married, on November 5, 1862, to Martha 
Anna, daughter of Jonathan Ellis, and she died, July 20, 1888. 
They had three sons: McDonald Ellis (H. U. '85), born 
June II, 1863; Perrin EUis, born May 25, 1865, died 1900; 

271 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Charles James (H. U. '90), born December 26, 1868, M.D. 
1893- 

HORACE OSCAR WHITTEMORE, 

Son of Aaron E. and Margaret Wilder (Reed) Whit- 
TEMORE, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, August 17, 

1893- 

When he was about four years old, his parents removed 
to Lowell, Massachusetts, where he received the first rudi- 
ments of his education. In 1838 he removed to Roxbury and 
was from time to time under the care of several instructors. 
In 1845 he entered the Roxbury Latin School, then taught by 
Messrs. Wheelwright and Short, where he remained three 
years and a half. In January, 1849, he again placed himself 
under the instruction of Mr. Wheelwright, and in July of the 
same year entered Harvard as Freshman. 

After graduation he occupied himself in teaching, and from 
September, 1858, to July, i860, was Master of the High 
School at Braintree. When the war broke out, it found him 
Major of the 4th Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia. 

Of Whittemore's active service during the Civil War he has 
left so full an account that it is best to let him tell the story 
in his own words. He says: " On the 15th of April, 1861, I 
received the first order from the State House for service in 
the field, and on the 17th left Boston with my regiment, the 
Massachusetts 4th, for Fortress Monroe, being the first officer 
who received an order and the first graduate of Harvard in 
the service. We arrived at our destination in season to enable 
the garrison to hold the fort, and remained about one month, 
when we were ordered to Newport News, Virginia, which 
place we immediately commenced fortifying, and by the last 
of June we had constructed a very strong and extensive work. 
On the loth of June I took part, with five companies of my 
own regiment, in the expedition towards Great Bethel, Vir- 
ginia, which might have been, ought to have been, and would 
have been successful, if General Butler who ordered it had 
been as attentive to details as he was anxious to distinguish 
himself. We achieved no victory, but the Massachusetts 

272 



Harvard Class of 1853 



troops engaged were in the first battle of the War. They did 
their duty, and, when ordered to retreat, we were almost in 
possession of the place, which would certainly have been ours 
in fifteen minutes more. About the first of July we were 
ordered to Hampton, where we remained until the expiration 
of the three months' service, when we returned to Boston. 
I immediately interested myself in raising troops and, on the 
2ist of February, 1862, left for Ship Island as Major of the 
30th Massachusetts Infantry. After due preparations had 
been made, our expedition sailed for New Orleans. We found 
obstacles in the shape of Forts Jackson and Philip, but the 
Navy silenced them, and I had the honor to take possession of 
Fort Philip, with its garrison, armament, and munitions of 
war, with Massachusetts men. From there we proceeded on 
our way, and arriving at New Orleans I marched with my 
regiment into the city, where we pitched the first Union camp 
in LaFayette Square. I was soon made Acting Chief of Po- 
lice, the duties of which position I performed for nearly a 
month, when my regiment was ordered to Baton Rouge, to 
prepare for an expedition to Vicksburg, to which place we 
soon proceeded and cooperated with Farragut's fleet during 
the bombardment in 1862. While here I had much hard work 
and little satisfaction. On the 4th of July, 1862, I was in 
command of 600 men on the Vicksburg side and within less 
than a thousand yards of one of the batteries, engaged in re- 
connoitring and making a plan of the works. This expedi- 
tion, however, resulted in nothing, and, after the loss of nearly 
half of the command, we returned to Baton Rouge about the 
last of July. On the 3d of July we were attacked by the enemy 
under Breckenridge, who had pursued us by land from Vicks- 
burg. A brilliant victory rewarded us upon this occasion, and, 
it being my second battle, I had the pleasure of seeing the 
tables turned upon the Rebels, who fared much worse than we 
did at Great Bethel. The division to which my regiment was 
attached was never again attacked in this Department, al- 
though it had a share in many hard fights subsequently. We 
passed most of the time from August, 1862, until March, 1863, 
in recruiting the health of the regiment, which had been nearly 

273 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ruined by its constant exposure, in swamp and bivouac, and 
those comparatively restored took the field, with Gen. Banks 
in command, and the reduction of Port Hudson in view. We 
were present when Farragut so gallantly passed the batteries 
and, the object of the expedition having been accomplished, 
we returned to Baton Rouge, and I immediately embarked 
with my regiment for a passage up the river to a point oppo- 
site Port Hudson, where we remained for some time annoying 
the enemy by interrupting his communications and cutting off 
his supplies. From here we returned to Baton Rouge and once 
more prepared for a move on Port Hudson which was des- 
tined to be successful. On the 21st of May I opened the fight 
with four companies of my regiment, and, with the aid of a 
battery, we soon occupied the ground of the rebels and found 
ourselves within five miles of Port Hudson. We were almost 
immediately attacked by the enemy's reinforcement, in front 
and flank, and a fierce battle ensued which resulted in our 
favor, though with considerable loss. This is known as the 
Battle of Plains Store. From this time forward until the 7th 
or 8th of July, we were constantly engaged in assaults and 
skirmishes, constantly under fire until the reduction of Port 
Hudson. We took a trip to Donaldsonville, where another 
battle occurred, and my regiment was allowed to return to its 
camp at Baton Rouge. Here I found that my health required 
a change of climate, and I returned to Boston after nearly 
two years of absence. Within sixty days I rejoined my regi- 
ment and, in a month after my return, was made Lieutenant- 
Colonel and placed permanently in command of the regiment, 
which I had commanded most of the time during my connection 
with it, and had always led in battle, the Colonel being in com- 
mand of the brigade and the Lieutenant-Colonel on detached 
service. I participated in the second march through the Red 
River Country and had just returned when the third and last 
started, in March, 1864. My regiment had reenlisted and, 
while waiting at New Orleans for transportation, they parti- 
cipated in the ceremonies attending the inauguration of Gov- 
ernor Hahn and the return of Louisiana to the Union. And, 
as they were the first to encamp in the city, so they were 

274 



Harvard Class of 1853 



among the first in the same square to witness the reestablish- 
ment of the State, with officers of her own choosing, under 
the authority of the National Government. On the 19th of 
March I arrived in Boston, and on the 2d day of May started 
on my return to New Orleans, where on the 26th day of May I 
succeeded in obtaining my discharge, having then been more 
than three years in the service. I have thus rapidly gone over 
my experience, giving only the prominent parts. Of course 
I have been engaged in many and varied expeditions and skir- 
mishes, at one time under fire from the 25th of June until 
the 20th of July, in the immediate vicinity of the terrific bom- 
bardment of Vicksburg, and serving the greater part of the 
time in the most unhealthy climate of the country, where 
disease was our most deadly foe, and passing through the 
usual experience of a soldier in camp and bivouac — some- 
times in swamps and sometimes on crowded transports in a 
burning sun; sometimes in command of a brigade of infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery, and often with a single battalion on 
outpost duty or reconnoitring expedition — until, having given 
my full three years to my country, I was reluctantly com- 
pelled to return to my home and family, whose care could 
no longer be allowed to pass unheeded." 

On returning to civil life Whittemore engaged in the busi- 
ness of an Insurance Agent in Boston, at first in partnership 
with Alfred K. Hills and later, in 1868, with Edwin B. Dow. 
He was also employed as Secretary by John C. Stanton in the 
management of the affairs of the Alabama and Chatta- 
nooga Railroad. Towards the end of his life he turned his 
attention to the study of the law, and on January 16, 1869, 
was admitted to the Suffolk Bar, but his health had been 
failing for about two years, and he died on March 30, 1871, 
at Boston. 

He was married at Braintree, Massachusetts, on Janu- 
ary 30, i860, to Katharine Wilde, who, as well as the 
two children of the marriage, survived him. They were: 
Horace A., born September 5, 1863; Helen I., born December 
12, 1864. 

275 



Harvard Class of 1853 



WILLIAM HENRY WHITTEMORE 

Was the son of Thomas Jefferson and Susanna Fran- 
ces (Boardman) Whittemore, born at Boston, October lo, 

In July, 1837, he moved with his father's family to Cam- 
bridge, and in 1842 entered the Hopkins Classical School, 
under Edmund Burke Whitman, where he remained seven 
years until he entered the Freshman class at Harvard in 1849. 
During his college life, in August, 1851, he was one of the 
passengers on the steamer " Governor " when she struck a 
rock near Owl's Head, in Maine, and the lives of those on 
board were imperilled. Part of the winter vacation of 1851-52 
he spent in Washington. His part at Commencement was an 
essay on " The Philosophy of Pope's Essay on Man." 

In his Senior year his eyesight began to fail, and instead of 
studying for the pulpit, as he had proposed, he made arrange- 
ments to engage in mercantile pursuits. His sight not im- 
proving, he sailed for Rio Janeiro in September after gradu- 
ating, and returned in March of the following year. In the 
summer of 1854 he had an attack of hemorrhage which was 
followed by two or three others about a year afterwards. A 
cough resulted, and he died at the residence of his father in 
Cambridge on February 9, 1857, unmarried. 

PELHAM WILLIAMS, 

Son of Samuel King and Elizabeth Winslow (Whit- 
man) Williams, was born on Fort Hill, Boston, at that time 
the residence of substantial citizens, August 20, 1833. He 
was a lineal descendant of Governor Edward Winslow. 

In 1839 he was sent to a boarding-school at Pembroke 
which was under the charge of a Quaker, Samuel Brown. 
From 1842 to 1844 he was at the Chauncy Hall School. In 
the latter year he entered the Boston Latin School, where he 
took the five years' course, and entered Harvard as Freshman 
in 1849. He enjoyed college life but little, and in 1853 bade 
farewell to its " irksome discipline and restraints " with a 
hearty good will. His part at Commencement was an essay, 
" Charles James Fox." His first intention was to study law, 

276 



Harvard Class of 1853 



but he was soon attracted to the ministry of the Episcopal 
Church. 

He was ordained Deacon in 1856, and Priest in 1857, by 
Bishop Burgess of Maine, and was Rector of St. Philip's 
Church in Wiscasset in that State from 1856 to 1861. From 
that place he was called to the newly organized parish of Trin- 
ity Church, Hartford, Connecticut, where he remained from 
1 861 to 1863. While living in Hartford he served for a short 
time as instructor in Trinity College, and received the degree 
of A.M. from that institution in 1861. From 1863 to 1865 
he was on the staff of the Church of the Advent, Boston, and 
from 1865 to 1866 was Chaplain at Hobart College, Geneva, 
New York. In 1866 he became Rector of the Church of the 
Messiah, Boston. He held this position until 1877, and while 
there received the degree of S.T.D. from Columbia College, 
New York. After an interval of two years, in which he held 
no settled office, he became Rector of the Church of St. Barna- 
bas at Troy, New York. His service here lasted from Sep- 
tember 21, 1879, to May 14, 1888. He held the office of Vice- 
President of the Corporation of this Parish from 1896 until 
his death. In a Resolve of the Corporation, on the occasion 
of this event, he is spoken of as the founder of the parish, who 
exerted upon the people, in the exercise of his priestly and 
pastoral offices, a gracious influence, for which they hold him 
in thankful and loving remembrance. 

Besides the work mentioned, he served for short periods at 
St. Stephen's Church, Brooklyn, New York; at St. John's, 
New Brunswick; at St. Luke's, Seaford, Delaware; at Trin- 
ity Memorial Church, Denver, Colorado. But after 1888 his 
only service of any length was that of Chaplain to the House 
of Mercy at Inwood-on-the-Hudson, at the upper end of New 
York City, — a home for fallen women. Here a Daily Cele- 
bration, Daily Evensong, Matins and a Sermon on Sunday 
were steadily maintained. His chaplaincy continued from 
October, 1899, to June, 1903. For the rest of his life Wil- 
liams assisted in the work of the Church wherever work could 
be found. 

At one period of his life Williams lived and officiated in 

277 



Harvanl Class of ISoS 



England and attended lectures at one of the Universities, but 
the particulars are not at hand. He never favored the Secre- 
tary with any complete account of his life. A memorandum 
found among his papers may have been intended for this use. 

Although, as has been said, he looked upon his college life 
as a weariness of the flesh, Williams's relations with his class- 
mates were most cordial, and he attended class meetings when- 
ever his engagements, which were constant, would permit. 
He had no doubts as to what he was called on to do, and he 
did it with persistetit energ)-. 

From the l>eginning of his career Williams threw himself 
heartily and enthusiastically into the " High Church " or 
•* Catholic " movement in the English Episcopal Church. 
Seldom have religious convictions been more distinctly and 
decidedly expressed than in the words used by him at a meet- 
ing of the Massachusetts Ouirch Union in Boston, when he 
is reported as saying : " Adaptation of religion to the times, 
which we hear so much about today, is a fallacy through and 
through and through. There is no such word as toleration. 
Theology is the most sacred of all Sciences, and the most 
exact. I should not be surprised to wake up some morning 
and find that two and two made eleven and three quarters. 
but I should b€ surprised to find that one jot or one tittle of 
the Nicene Creed was in the least wrong." The complete self- 
consecration which \\'illiams not only preached but practised, 
appeared in what he told a classmate whom he asked, on some 
public day at Cambridge, to show him how and when he could 
reach a point not remote, by public conve>'ance. After giving 
him the direction sought, his friend added. " You will find 
all that in the papers." *' But," said Williams. '' I never look 
at them." " Don't you feel under any obligation." his friend 
rejoined, " to know what is going on amongst the generation 
you are pledged to sene? " " By no means! " retorted Wil- 
liams. " The truths of the Ouirch are the same in all ages. 
One has only to study them, and ever}-thing becomes plain." 

Williams died of pneumonia, at Greenbush. a village of 
Scituate. Massachusetts, where he had an ancestral estate, on 
May 12. 1 90S. and was buried in the old burj-ing-place of his 

278 



Harvard Class of 1853 



family on the 14th. On the following morning there was a 
requiem-celebration at the Church of the Advent, IJoston, the 
services being held under the auspices of the Catholic Club, 
of which the deceased was a member. The sermon was 
preached by the Rev. Mr. Cheney; the Rev. Augustus Prime, 
and the Rev. Dr. William H. Van Allen assisted, and there 
was a large number of the clergy in attendance. A " Minute 
Adopted by the Priests present at the burial of Rev. Pelham 
Williams, S.T.D." reads as follows: 

" By the death of the Rev. Dr. Williams the American 
Church has lost a priest of profound learning, fervid elo- 
quence, and unfaltering loyalty to the Catholic Faith and 
Apostolic Order. Graduated from Harvard in 1853, he 
learned the full significance of its motto Christo et Ecclesice, 
and in his ministry of more than half a century he bore splen- 
did witness to the Truth as it is in Jesus. His brilliant in- 
tellect proved all things and held fast to the essential Good ; 
his sparkling wit played around shams of every sort with 
unfailing illumination; his heart overflowed with love to all 
men, making him truly a faithful shepherd in all the fields 
where he exercised his ministry. Gratefully acknowledging 
the inspiration of his good example, we pray God may grant 
him rest eternal in the regions of perpetual light." Signed 
by Augustus Prime, William F. Cheney, Joseph Dinzey, Mar- 
cus H. Carroll, and William Harman Van Allen. 

Williams married, at the Church of the Epiphany, Washing- 
ton, D. C, August 7, 1861, Helen Margaretta Gunning, of 
Washington, who survives him. Their children were : Grace 
Pelham; Helen Pelham and Agnes Pelham, twin sisters who 
died in infancy; Amy Pelham, who died May 21, 1882; Her- 
bert Pelham (H. U. '92), born September 29, 1871. 

DAVIES WILSON, 

Eldest child of Israel and Caroline (Da vies) Wilson, 
was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, August 16, 1830. 

From 1833 to 1844 he was under various instructors, and 
during the summer was usually domesticated in the farmhouse 
of his paternal grandfather in Warren County. In his youth 

279 



Harvard Class of 1853 



he seems to have had unusual opportunities for travel, making 
a visit to Boston by way of Pennsylvania in 1844, returning 
by way of New York and Niagara Falls, and the years 1847- 
48 were mostly spent in travelling which extended as far as 
Arkansas and New Orleans. In 1846-47 he attended the St. 
Xavier (Jesuit) College, Cincinnati, and stood well. In 1848 
he came to Cambridge to fit for college under Shattuck Hart- 
well, then Latin Tutor, and one year after entered Harvard as 
Freshman. During the winter vacations of his Sophomore 
and Senior years he kept school at South Scituate and Lan- 
caster, Massachusetts. While pursuing his college course, he 
was involved in a fatal railroad collision in New Jersey. 

On graduating, in 1853, he entered, without preliminary 
study or preparation, a corps of engineers engaged in laying 
out a short-line railway from Cincinnati to Cleveland, and 
marched and countermarched for a year or more in the 
swamps of Central Ohio, acquiring thereby a severe ague. 
The panic of 1854 put an end to the company and the enter- 
prise. By nursing himself through the next winter he was 
prepared to go out, early in 1855, to the new Territory opened 
by the Act of 1853, under the name of Kansas, in order to 
survey the proposed town of Manhattan for the use of a col- 
ony organized in Cincinnati. While this was going on at a 
point east of Fort Riley, Wilson took part in the organization 
of a town to the west of Fort Riley on the site of the present 
Junction City. This was in 1856 and 1857, and it brought him 
into a suit in the Land Office at Ogden, which forced him into 
practice of the law from 1858 to 1862. He was admitted to 
the Bar in the United States District Court, October 6, 1859. 

While living in Kansas Wilson held numerous offices, among 
them City Justice for Ogden, March 19, i860. County Sur- 
veyor for Riley County, November 6, i860, and County Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, April 9, 1862. 

Simultaneously with the outbreak of the Civil War Kansas 
was admitted as a State. In the first State Senate in 1861 
Wilson was elected a clerk. For the year 1862 he was a mem- 
ber of the lower house, and was on the commission to compile 
the Territorial Laws, of which the Chief Justice, Thomas 

280 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Ewing, Jr., afterward General, was President. He also took 
a leading part in securing the location at Manhattan of the 
State Agricultural College, and was one of the managers of 
the impeachment of three State officers, including the Gover- 
nor, Charles Robinson, the charge being illegality in the issue 
of State bonds, the Governor, according to Wilson, being the 
one principally aimed at. If so, the aim was wide of the mark, 
for the Governor was almost unanimously acquitted and the 
others found guilty. 

After having assisted in raising the Ogden Company of the 
loth Kansas Volunteers under Captain James M. Harvey, 
afterwards Governor of Kansas and United States Senator 
from that State, Wilson, in 1862, entered into a law-partner- 
ship at Emporia with one of his fellow-legislators, Preston B. 
Plumb, afterwards United States Senator. His partner soon 
left him to become Major of the nth Kansas Volunteers and 
Chief of Staff of General Thomas Ewing, Jr., at Kansas City, 
Alissouri, the headquarters of the District of the Border. Wil- 
son, after closing the law business at Emporia, followed, and 
in July, 1863, became Volunteer Aid-de-camp on General 
Ewing's staff, and, in 1864, by order of General Ewing, tem- 
porarily on duty at headquarters, which were then at St. Louis, 
Missouri, he having previously acted as Assistant Provost- 
Marshal of the District of the Border. An exciting chase of 
the guerilla Quantrell, who pillaged and murdered in Law- 
rence in 1863, seems to have been the principal event of his 
military life at Kansas City. In the autumn of 1864 Kansas 
was threatened with invasion by General Sterling Price, and 
twenty-four regiments of State militia were raised to meet 
it. Wilson enlisted as private in the 14th, and was engaged 
in the battle of Westport, Missouri, just over the border, on 
October 22^, in which Generals Curtis and Pleasanton drove 
back Price and put an end to the invasion. On April 19, 1865, 
Wilson received the commission of Captain and Assistant Ad- 
jutant-General in the 3d Brigade of the Kansas State Militia, 
serving as Chief of Staff of Brigadier-General James M. Har- 
vey, and was discharged in the following August. 

He returned to Cincinnati in 1866 to visit his family, and 

S81 



Harvard Class of 1853 



falling in with some old California miners who wished to 
explore the Appalachian mines, he went with them into Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, having a special object of his own, 
which was to examine the Gold Hill Mine, before the war 
operated by a company of Boston owners. Detained in the 
East by these occupations, he took up his residence in the city 
of Washington, and by the aid of his friends, Senators Pome- 
roy and Ross, of Kansas, he entered the Patent Office as Tem- 
porary Clerk, September 12, 1867. He was promoted to be 
a Second Class Clerk, June i, 1868, a Second Assistant Ex- 
aminer, January 15, 1869, and First Assistant Examiner, 
May I, 1869. On May 3, 1871, he married at Dorchester, 
Massachusetts, Mehitable Calef Coppenhagen, daughter of 
Arnold Wilhelm Martel and Mehitable Miller (Calef) Coppen- 
hagen, a descendant of Robert Calef, memorable for his book 
on witchcraft, written in opposition to Cotton Mather. He 
resigned his position at the Patent Office on the 31st of the 
same month, and took his bride to California for a six months' 
sojourn. 

The next eighteen years of his life were spent in the high, 
commanding, and beautiful part of his native Cincinnati 
called Price Hill. His semi-rural residence comprised a 
broad and commodious house, a stable, and nine acres of 
ground in garden and pasturage. This estate has, since his 
death, been presented to the city of Cincinnati by his widow 
to be used as a public pleasure ground and to be known as 
Wilson Common. While there he occupied himself in the 
occasional exercise of what he considered his original profes- 
sion, civil engineering, and in various ways of making himself 
useful to the public. Amongst others he was much interested 
in the Tax Payers' League, formed to promote municipal 
economy, and was President of the Eleventh District Society 
of Associated Charities. 

In 1889 he removed to Washington for a change of climate, 
and then, in 1901, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he 
passed the remainder of his life enjoying the opportunities for 
gratifying his literary, artistic, and musical tastes which Bos- 
ton and Cambridge afford, and giving his classmates the pleas- 

282 



Harvard Class of 1853 



ure of welcoming him after a long absence to their meetings. 
Unfortunately this renewed acquaintance was not to be of 
long duration. He died at Cambridge of bronchial pneu- 
monia, after a short illness, on May 19, 1905, leaving a widow 
but no surviving children. A funeral service was held in Mt. 
Auburn Chapel on the 22d, at which his Cincinnati pastor, 
Rev. Charles W. Wendte, paid an affectionate tribute to his 
amiable qualities and his refined tastes. 

JUSTIN WINSOR, 

Son of Nathaniel, Jr., and Ann Thomas (Rowland) 
WiNSOR, was born at Boston, January 2, 1831. 

He was prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, 
which he entered in 1845. Before his entrance at Harvard 
as Freshman in 1849 he was a full-fledged author, having 
completed and put to press his " History of the Town of Dux- 
bury," the birthplace and home of both his father and mother, 
which was published in that year. 

Winsor's love of reading distracted his mind from the regu- 
lar college course, in which he took but little interest and 
found but little profit. His ambition was to be a literary man 
in some general sense, probably not exactly defined to himself, 
and while at Cambridge he began extetjsive preparations for 
a " Life of Garrick," on which he subsequently worked for 
eleven years. By the end of the Junior year college life had 
become so great a burden that he obtained his father's consent 
to leave, and on October 11, 1852, he sailed from New York 
for Havre, intending to pursue his studies at a German Uni- 
versity. He reached Havre October 28, and went at once to 
Paris, where he acquired the French language, and in Decem- 
ber witnessed the proclamation of the Second Empire. Two 
years were passed in Paris and Heidelberg in the mastery of 
French and German, and some journeys were made, chiefly on 
foot. Meanwhile he was working at translations and essays 
and some original poems, and collected material for a large 
volume. In September, 1854, he returned to Boston, where 
he resided as a member of his father's household until his re- 
moval to Cambridge. 

283 



Harvard Class of 1853 



From the time of his return to America until 1868 he led 
the life of a man of letters. He published no book during this 
period, but he was associated with the Rev. George H. Hep- 
worth in the compilation of a hymn-book for the use of the 
Church of the Unity, called " Songs of the Unity." He him- 
self wrote a hymn for the installation of Mr. Hepworth. He 
was, however, an active contributor of original poems and 
book reviews and translated essays to the periodicals of the 
day, especially the " Crayon," the " Round Table," the " New 
York World," the " Knickerbocker," and the " Christian Reg- 
ister." He did not publish the book he brought home from 
Europe, but used the material in a variety of forms, contrib- 
uting, for instance, to the " Round Table " a serial, " The 
Heidelberg Brotherhood," in which a group of characters dis- 
cussed German poetry. All the time he was working at his 
" Life of Garrick," begun in his college da3's, the first draft 
of which occupies ten manuscript folio volumes, but which 
was never completed. 

The association which he had formed with men of letters in 
Boston led to his appointment in 1866 to the Board of Trus- 
tees of the Boston Public Library. His masterly " Report " 
in 1867 attracted the attention of the Trustees and of the 
public. On the death of Mr. Jewett, the Superintendent, Win- 
sor was called on to take temporary charge of the Library. 
In a few weeks he had so demonstrated his capability that he 
was confirmed in the office. By the way in which he admin- 
istered it he became the best-known librarian in the country. 
He had the born organizer's eye for the choice of subordinates, 
with the power of impressing himself upon them, and an in- 
exhaustible supply of energy to make the machine go. He 
carried the Library substantially on the lines of his predeces- 
sors, but he developed the efficiency of their ideas to the 
utmost. He took a library of (in round numbers) 150,000 
volumes with a circulation of 175,000; he left, after ten years, 
a library of 310,000 volumes circulating 1,140,000 volumes a 
year, and running so smoothly that, for a long time after he 
resigned the charge, it was not perceived that there was no 
librarian. 

281 



Harvard Class of 1853 



In 1877 there was a period of general financial distress. It 
seemed that the time had come to economize in the expenses 
of the Library, and the management was ready to adjust its 
expenses to the exigencies which had arisen. But the City 
Council assumed to regulate the details of a method of econ- 
omy, and did it with such lack of knowledge that confusion 
and injustice resulted. In this contingency Winsor resigned, 
and President Eliot, with his accustomed sagacity, secured the 
appointment, as Librarian of Harvard University, as successor 
to John Langdon Sibley, of his classmate, whose name had 
been formally added in 1868 to the class list of Bachelors of 
Arts, out of course. 

One feature of Winsor's management of the Boston Public 
Library was his desire to furnish books that people wished 
to read, without attempting to regulate too strictly their 
choice. The supply of cheap fiction was largely diminished by 
his successors. Another feature was the issue of annotated 
catalogues, in which valuable information relating to the 
books offered was contained, the novelty and copiousness of 
which excited the astonishment of English librarians. 

He made it a condition in going to Cambridge that his rank 
should be the same as that of a professor, which was readily 
conceded, and he carried with him his principle that " books 
should be used " and not merely accumulated and preserved. 
His new position brought him into the most congenial rela- 
tions. He used to say that as a student he was miserable, but 
that when he returned as an officer he was more happily placed 
than ever in his life. 

It was during his life at Cambridge that he added to his 
literary work as bibliographer that of author and editor of 
historical works on a large scale, the most notable being the 
" Memorial History of Boston," in four volumes, 1880-81, 
and the " Narrative and Critical History of America," in eight 
volumes, 1884-89. Nothing quite like these works had before 
been attempted. His executive ability was clearly shown in 
the enterprise. He classified the work, assigned the parts to a 
large number of special writers, and transacted thoroughly 
the editorial portion. The books were enriched with a large 

285 



Harvard Class of 1853 



number of maps, portraits, fac-similes, and other illustrations, 
and the editor's notes form so valuable a part of the perform- 
ance that it was said that the cream of the work was at the 
bottom. He early perceived the great assistance rendered to 
history by cartography. His interest in map-drawing was one 
of the earliest he displayed. When a school boy he made maps 
of Duxbury. He collected and made maps when travelling in 
this country and afterwards in Europe. When superintending 
the history of our new continent, and when familiarizing him- 
self with the resources of the University library, singularly 
rich in maps and charts, he rapidly became an expert in the 
science. His services were more than once called for by the 
United States government, especially in the Behring Sea dis- 
pute, and also from time to time during 1896, when he was 
repeatedly summoned, once from a class dinner, by the com- 
missioners appointed to investigate and report upon the true 
divisional line between Venezuela and British Guiana. 

Indeed this science of cartography gave the leading impulse 
to what was the crowning work of his life — the four volumes 
of " Christopher Columbus," 1891 ; " Cartier to Frontenac," 
1894; "The Mississippi Basin," 1895, and "The Westward 
Movement," 1897. In these he traced the development of the 
geographical knowledge of North America from the first 
voyage of Columbus to the movement which defined the trans- 
Mississippi region and the Pacific coast. He engaged in direct 
teaching. He invited students to form a class and relied 
for stimulus and spur on their interest in the subject. His 
examination consisted in asking each what part of the course 
had most interested him, and when the question was answered 
he marked him A. 

In 1884 he was appointed by Governor Robinson one of five 
commissioners to investigate the records and documents in the 
State Department of the Commonwealth, and served in this 
capacity until his death. He was editor of the first report, in 
1885. 

Winsor made occasional journeys to Europe, one of them 
being of a year's length, when he resided chiefly in England 
and Italy, and the letters which he wrote to the " New York 

286 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Nation " give an agreeable impression of the visits which he 
made to great Hbraries and collections. Material for his " Life 
of Columbus " was collected in the libraries of Spain and 
Italy. 

Winsor was one of the founders of the American Library- 
Association, and its President from 1876 to 1886; Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
1881-94, and Vice-President, 1894-97; Member of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society; Fellow of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences; Corresponding Member of the Royal 
Society of Canada; Honorary Member of the Literary and 
Historical Society of Quebec; Honorary Corresponding Mem- 
ber of the Royal Geographical Society of London, He re- 
ceived the degree of LL.D. from the University of Michigan 
in 1887 and from Williams College in 1893. 

Winsor's opera magna have been mentioned above, but to 
appreciate his marvellous literary activity and industry one 
must consult the compilation entitled " A Bibliography of 
Justin Winsor," being No. 54 in the Bibliographical Contri- 
butions issued by the Library of Harvard University, prepared 
by William F. Yust, 1902. 

Winsor's last illness was very short. Returning from an 
International Convention of Librarians held in London, he 
took cold on the voyage, which aggravated the effects of a 
subsequent surgical operation. He died on October 22, 1897, 
at his home on Buckingham Street, Cambridge. 

Winsor married Caroline Tufts, daughter of Ebenezer and 
Sally (Fuller) Barker, of Charlestown, in December, 1855, 
and had one daughter, Constance, born May 13, i860, married 
to James Atkins Noyes, February 4, 1890. She died January 
I, 1895. His funeral, on October 26, from the College Chapel, 
was largely attended ; the Library and other departments were 
represented, and the Class of 1853 by Professor James Mills 
Peirce, as pall bearers, as well as by the President in his offi- 
cial capacity. In the foregoing account the excellent Memoir 
by Horace E. Scudder, contained in the Proceedings of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society for 1899, has been largely 
drawn upon. 

287 



Harvard Class of 1853 



Caroline T. Winsor, widow of Justin Winsor, died at Ar- 
lington Heights, September 26, 191 1, in the eighty-second year 
of her age. 

WILLIAM PRESCOTT WRIGHT, 

Only son of John Wright (H. U. 1823) and Susan 
(Prescott) Wright, was born at Groton, Massachusetts, 
March 18, 1832. His mother was a well-known teacher in 
Groton, and of the historic family. 

At the end of a year his parents removed to Worcester, 
where he received his earliest school education. In the sum- 
mer of 1843 his father having been made Agent of the Suf- 
folk Mills, his residence was changed to Lowell, where he 
passed through the public schools, and received his final pre- 
paratory instruction for admission to college under a private 
teacher, entering Harvard as Freshman in 1849. 

After graduating he began the study of the law at Lowell, 
in the office of the Hon. Nathan Crosby, Judge of the Police 
Court of that city. He attended the Harvard Law School for 
two terms of the academical year 1855-56, and was admitted 
to the Middlesex Bar in September, 1856. Though not at any 
time a regularly appointed Clerk of the Police Court, he as- 
sisted Judge Crosby in the capacity of Clerk, but did not after- 
wards practise his profession. About the year 1856 he re- 
moved to Chicago and established himself in commercial busi- 
ness. Later he entered upon the business of banking, broker- 
age, and real estate. 

Owing to ill health, the latter part of his life was spent in 
retirement from active affairs. He died at Chicago May 9, 
1896. He was married, April 7, 1858, at Galesburg, Illinois, 
to Lydia Abbie, daughter of John and Abigail (Hall) Keyser, 
sometime of Waltham and afterwards of Lowell, Massachu- 
setts, by whom he had three children : Susan Prescott, born 
January 9, 1864, died June 7, 1865; Herbert Hamilton, born 
September 21, 1866; John Prescott, born July 12, 1871. His 
wife and sons survived him. 



288 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Preface v 

Prefatory Note vii 

LIFE-SKETCHES 

John Quincy Adams 15 

Edward Holmes Ammidown 21 

Edward Reynolds Andrews 25 

Gordon Bartlet 32 

JosiAH Kendall Bennett 33 

George William Billings vii 

Charles Frederic Blake 35 

George Henry Blanchard 38 

Charles Edward Briggs 38 

Joseph Mansfield Brown 44 

Albert Gallatin Browne 46 

John Duncan Bryant 51 

Samuel Carey vii 

Charles Carroll 54 

Edward Henry Chace vii 

Nathan Henry Chamberlain 56 

Theodore Chase 58 

Benjamin Cutler Clark 59 

Nathan James Clifford vii 

Uriel Haskell Crocker 62 

William Henry Cunningham 67 

Elbridge Jefferson Cutler 68 

George Osgood Dalton 71 

John Daves 74 

William Sidney Davis 75 

Moses Henry Day yj 

William Edward Dorsheimer 78 

Atwood Harlow Drew 81 

289 



Harvard Class of 1853 

PAGE 

Ormond Horace Button 82 

George Russell Dwelley 83 

Wilder Dwight 87 

Henry Augustus Edwards vii 

Charles William Eliot 95 

John Erving 116 

Cornelius Fiske 118 

Edward Fiske 119 

William Leonard Gage 121 

Edward Chipman Guild 123 

William Ware Hall 128 

Gardiner Green Hammond vii 

William Penn Harding 129 

George Walker Hart well 134 

Adams Sherman Hill 135 

Hamilton Alonzo Hill 141 

Alfred Hosmer 142 

Andrew Jackson Howe 144 

Edward Howland 146 

Charles Henry Hurd 152 

John Willson Hutchins 157 

George Smith Hyde 158 

Samuel Edwin Ireson 159 

Charles Jacobs 161 

Amos Howe Johnson 162 

Charles Everett Johnson 165 

Joshua Kendall 166 

Edward King 167 

Charles Frederick Livermore 172 

Arthur Theodore Lyman 175 

Francis McGuire 178 

George Frederick Meacham 179 

Charles Appleton Miles 180 

Raymond Moulton 181 

John Godfrey Neil vii 

Henry Stedman Nourse 184 

Stephen Buttrick Noyes 189 

Charles Jackson Paine 190 

George Sturgis Paine 196 

John Carver Palfrey i97 

£90 



Harvard Class of 1853 



PAGE 

Edward Pearce 202 

William Henry Peck 204 

James Mills Peirce 208 

Ellis Peterson 213 

Charles Coolidge Pomeroy 216 

Robert Samuel Rantoul 217 

Francis Gardiner Richards 226 

Adolphe Rost vii 

William Henry Rowe 227 

Francis Henry Russell ^29 

George Henry Sargent 230 

WiNSLOw Warren Sever , 233 

Samuel Savage Shaw 236 

William Inskeep Shreve 238 

Edward Sutton Smith 239 

George Smith . 240 

John Henry Sullivan 243 

Edward Jarvis Tenney 244 

Francis Wales Vaughan 246 

David Henshaw Ward 248 

George Smith Wardwell 251 

John Davis Washburn 253 

Sylvester Waterhouse 256 

Aaron Davis Weld 266 

James Clarke White 267 

Horace Oscar Whittemore 272 

William Henry Whittemore 276 

Pelham Williams 276 

Davies Wilson 279 

Justin Winsor 283 

William Prescott Wright 288 



291 















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